CMO Insights: How to go from a Market Disruptor to a Category Leader

We recently had the pleasure of hosting ourCMO Consult Webinar, where I was joined byUdi Ledergor,GongCMO, andSydney Sloan, former CMO atSalesloft. Both companies were named toG2是2022年最好的软件奖lists, based on verified reviews from real users coupled with an impressive market presence. With experience leading marketing at some of the best B2B software companies around, Udi and Sydney know a thing or two about disrupting established markets and how to rise to the top of their categories.

Choosing software category disruption over creation

We’ve all heard software vendors say they’re the ONLY one in their market. They’re creating a net-new category that doesn't exist. While this certainly can be true, more often than not, thereisan existing category they fit into.

Sydney argues that you always need to think first about the purpose of your category and more importantly - if you actually need to create one. Don’t jump to this as a first option as it’s a long, arduous, and expensive process. There are plenty of other ways to win a market, like disrupting a category that already exists. She says education should be a top priority for organizations, casting a vision for what the marketcanbe – which may be much further than what your product is delivering today. Udi cautions category creation as well, noting there are often easier ways to win most markets. It’s not something we all have to do.

As an example – and sure, to toot our own horn a bit – at G2, we’ve disrupted the way software category creation is done. We’re not a traditional analyst firm that is pay-for-play and based on individual analyst opinions, which can be biased and outdated. We root everything we do in authentic, verified, real-time peer reviews that allow for organizations to understand the end-user’s perspective.

How to do category creation right, when it makes sense

If you do, however, decide to build a category, it’s important to have customer champions, analysts, and experts who are covering your ‘category’ in the desired way, and to have someone else in your space (competitors!) to ensure it’s a viable category.

Despite Udi’s caution, he has some experience here. At Gong, they first found a similar category - conversation intelligence - that served the company well for about three years. Then, two problems emerged creating the need for a new category: 1) they were outgrowing the category, and 2) their product offering at the time was farther reaching than anything seen in the market.

Gong also wanted to keep the attention of senior sales leaders, especially in enterprises, when they talked to them about conversation intelligence. To determine the appropriate category and path forward, Gong brought someone on to focus specifically on category design and amplification.

They landed on “Revenue Intelligence.” Of course it’s a risk to pioneer something new, but when done well, you reap the benefits in the long run. The drastic uptick in “Revenue Intelligence” search volume is just one indicator of the category’s success. Gong’s competitors have changed their product language and messaging to be around this terminology too.

Clearly, they timed their move right, and timing…sometimes is everything. Take Google for example, which wasn’t the first search engine, but saw what everyone else was doing and simply did it better. Marketers can sometimes focus too much on the new, and there is an advantage to pioneering – but pioneering at the right time is more important.