You Don't Need New Products—You Need New Positioning

When revenue growth stalls at a consulting or training firm, the instinct is usually the same: we need something new. A new service line. A new methodology. A new capability. Something to sell that we couldn't sell before.

This instinct is usually wrong.

In my experience, most firms don't have a product problem. They have a positioning problem. Their existing capabilities can deliver far more value than their current positioning allows buyers to see. The limitation isn't what they can do—it's how they're presenting it.

Before you invest in building new capabilities, ask a harder question: are you helping buyers understand what they can already do with what you already have?

The Positioning Constraint

Here's how this typically plays out. A firm develops expertise in a particular area—let's say, assessments for hiring. They build a strong product. They get good at delivering it. They position themselves around it: "We help you hire better."

Clients use the assessments for hiring and get good results. But over time, some clients start using the assessments for other purposes. They use them for onboarding—helping new hires understand their strengths and development areas. They use them for team development. For succession planning. For performance management.

The clients figured this out on their own. They saw broader applications for the tool and started using it more expansively.

But the firm is still positioned around hiring. Their messaging says hiring. Their sales conversations focus on hiring. Their case studies highlight hiring outcomes. New buyers see "hiring assessment" and think "that's not what I need right now."

The product can do much more than the positioning suggests. But buyers only see what the positioning shows them.

This is a positioning constraint. The firm's capabilities exceed their market perception. Growth is limited not by what they can deliver but by what buyers believe they can deliver.

A Case in Point

I worked with an assessment company that exemplified this pattern. They'd been in business for decades with a solid product and a prestigious client list. But growth had stalled. They were stuck.

When I conducted voice of customer research—actually talking to their clients about how they used the product—the disconnect was obvious.

Clients were using the assessments across the entire employee lifecycle. Yes, hiring—but also onboarding, development, coaching, succession planning, team optimization. They'd discovered these applications themselves because the product was genuinely useful for all of them.

But the company was positioned and sold exclusively around hiring. Their website said hiring. Their sales team sold hiring. Their marketing focused on hiring.

The result? Buyers who needed help with development or succession planning didn't consider them. They looked for "development solutions" or "succession planning tools" and this firm didn't show up. Meanwhile, the firm's existing clients were expanding usage on their own, without any help from the company—leaving significant revenue on the table.

The product didn't need to change. The positioning did.

We repositioned them from "hiring assessment" to "talent optimization solution" and built comprehensive playbooks for each major use case. The playbooks showed buyers exactly how to deploy assessments for onboarding, development, succession planning—complete with business cases, implementation approaches, and ROI models.

The sales team could now have broader, more strategic conversations. Instead of "do you have hiring needs?" they could discuss "where are your biggest talent challenges?" and offer relevant solutions for whatever the buyer identified.

The results were significant. Revenue from existing clients expanded substantially as they formalized and extended usage they'd already been doing informally. New client acquisition improved because the firm was now visible for use cases beyond hiring. Deal sizes increased because engagements were scoped more broadly.

And they didn't build a single new capability. They repositioned and enabled what they already had.

Why This Happens

If positioning is limiting growth, why don't firms fix it?

Several reasons:

• They don't know. Most firms don't conduct systematic voice of customer research. They don't actually know how clients are using their services or what broader applications might exist. They assume their positioning matches reality because no one has told them otherwise.

• Original positioning sticks. The way a firm initially positions itself tends to persist. It's in the website, the sales materials, the pitch decks. It's how the market knows them. Changing it feels risky—what if we confuse people?

• Broader positioning feels presumptuous. Claiming you can solve a wider range of problems than you've been known for feels like overreach. Who are we to say we do talent optimization when we've always been known for hiring?

• Product focus dominates. Firm leaders often think in terms of products and capabilities, not buyer problems. They see what they have and describe it. They don't see how buyers think about their challenges and position against that.

• Sales team comfort. Sales teams get comfortable selling what they've always sold. Broader positioning requires new conversations, new qualification questions, new ways of presenting solutions. That's harder than repeating familiar pitches.

The net result is firms that are capable of much more than their positioning allows buyers to see. They leave revenue on the table—both from new clients who don't consider them and existing clients who don't expand.

Signs You Have a Positioning Problem

How do you know if positioning is constraining your growth? Here are some signals:

• Clients use your services in ways you don't sell. If customers are finding applications you don't actively market, that's a clear sign your positioning is narrower than your value. Those unsold applications represent untapped revenue.

• You lose deals to inferior competitors. If you're losing to firms with weaker capabilities, the problem often isn't your product—it's how buyers perceive you. Better positioning would get you into different consideration sets.

• Your sales conversations are narrow. If your sales team keeps having the same conversation about the same use case, you might be missing broader buyer needs. Wider positioning opens wider conversations.

• Expansion is client-driven, not firm-driven. If account expansion happens because clients figure things out themselves rather than because you proactively sell it, you're leaving money on the table. You should be driving expansion, not waiting for it.

• Buyers pigeonhole you. If prospects say things like "I thought you only did X" or "I didn't know you could help with Y," that's a positioning problem. The market's perception is smaller than your reality.

If any of these sound familiar, you probably don't need new products. You need to reposition and enable what you already have.

How to Fix a Positioning Problem

Addressing a positioning constraint requires a few key moves:

• Conduct voice of customer research. Talk to your clients—really talk to them—about how they use your services and what they value. Not surveys. Not focus groups. In-depth conversations where you learn how they actually deploy what you provide, what outcomes they care about, and what would drive expanded usage. This reveals the gap between your positioning and your value.

• Identify the broader buyer problem. Your current positioning probably describes what you do. Better positioning describes the buyer problem you solve. "Hiring assessments" is what you do. "Talent optimization" is the problem you solve. Reframe around the buyer's challenge, not your product.

• Build use case playbooks. If you want buyers to see expanded applications, you have to show them exactly how it works. Create comprehensive playbooks for each major use case—including business case, implementation approach, best practices, and ROI model. Make it easy for buyers to say yes.

• Enable your sales team. Broader positioning requires new sales conversations. Train your team on how to have wider-ranging discussions, how to qualify for different use cases, and how to present solutions for problems they haven't traditionally addressed. If the sales team isn't enabled, the new positioning won't translate to revenue.

• Update everything. Website. Sales materials. Case studies. Pitch decks. Everything that communicates who you are and what you do. Inconsistency undermines the repositioning. Make sure every touchpoint reflects the broader value you deliver.

• Guide expansion proactively. Don't wait for clients to figure out expanded applications on their own. Build account expansion into your delivery process. When you complete one engagement, show the client what else they could do. Make expansion a systematic motion, not a happy accident.

This isn't about making claims you can't support. It's about helping buyers see value you can genuinely deliver but aren't currently communicating.

The Positioning Payoff

When firms address positioning constraints, several things happen:

• New buyer segments open up. Broader positioning makes you relevant to buyers you weren't previously reaching. You show up in different searches, different consideration sets, different conversations.

• Sales conversations elevate. Instead of narrow, tactical discussions about specific products, your team has strategic conversations about broader challenges. This leads to larger engagements and stronger relationships.

• Existing client revenue expands. When you help clients see additional applications, they use more of what you offer. Account values increase without acquiring new logos.

• Competitive differentiation sharpens. Competitors who are still narrowly positioned become less relevant. You're solving bigger problems.

• Deal sizes grow. Broader positioning leads to broader scopes. Initial engagements are larger because they address more of what the buyer needs.

The math is compelling. Repositioning costs relatively little—some research, some content development, some sales enablement. But it unlocks revenue that's already latent in your capabilities. The ROI is typically substantial.

Before You Build, Reposition

Here's my recommendation: before you invest in building new products or capabilities, make sure you've fully monetized what you already have.

Ask yourself:

• Do we really understand how clients use our services and what they value?

• Are there applications we're capable of that we're not actively selling?

• Is our positioning narrower than our actual value?

• Are we helping buyers see what they can do with what we offer?

If the answer to any of these is "probably not," you have a positioning opportunity. Address that before you build new things.

New product development is expensive and slow. Repositioning is relatively cheap and fast. And in many cases, repositioning will drive more growth than a new product would—because the constraint was never capability. It was perception.

The Bottom Line

Most consulting and training firms limit their growth through positioning, not capability. They can deliver more value than their market positioning allows buyers to see.

Before you build new products, reposition and enable what you already have. Understand how clients actually use your services. Identify broader applications. Build playbooks that show buyers exactly how to deploy those applications. Enable your sales team to have wider conversations.

You probably don't need something new to sell.

You need to help buyers see what they can already do with what you already offer.

That's where the revenue is hiding.