Key Takeaways:
- Copying competitors makes you invisible in a crowded market.
- True differentiation positions your brand as the only logical choice.
- Standing out requires the courage to reject industry sameness and claim your own territory.
When Imitation Feels Safe and Why It’s a Trap
“A business’ success hinges on its ability to stand out, to be recognized, to be remembered.”
— The B2B Marketing Revolution®
Battle 5 of The B2B Marketing Revolution® is one of the hardest-hitting chapters I’ve ever written. And for good reason. It forces leaders to confront a truth most don’t want to admit:
You can’t outpace the competition while standing in their shadow.
Yet for years, I’ve watched well-intentioned B2B teams try.
They benchmark their competitors’ websites.
They copy each other’s “value props.”
They borrow the same language, same visuals, same promises all in the name of “best practices.”
What they don’t realize is that industry norms are often just repeated mistakes.
In my earliest days consulting CEOs, I remember sitting across a boardroom table listening to a leadership team proudly show me how their new messaging “aligned with the top three competitors.” They expected praise.
Instead, I asked them one question that sucked the air right out of the room:
“If you say what they say… why should the market choose you?”
Silence.
Imitation feels safe, but safety is the slowest form of decline.
The CanyonTech Story: When Sameness Costs You the Sale
“In a sea of similarities, differentiation is power. Companies that simply echo the sentiments and differentiators of others often fade into brand irrelevance.”
— The B2B Marketing Revolution®
A few years ago, I worked with a mid-market technology firm I’ll call CanyonTech. Smart team. Solid product. Strong funding. But they had plateaued hard.
Their CEO pulled me aside and said, “Lori, our pipeline evaporated in 90 days. Prospects stop returning calls. We’re invisible out there.”
When I reviewed their brand positioning, I understood why.
They were saying exactly, and I mean exactly, what their competitors were saying:
- “Innovative solutions”
- “End-to-end support”
- “Industry-leading performance”
You could’ve swapped their logo with any other company in their category and not changed a thing.
Their differentiation wasn’t just weak.
It didn’t exist.
The leadership team had unintentionally built a brand so similar to others that buyers couldn’t tell who the hell anyone was.
When we ran external interviews, prospects said things like:
- “You all sound the same.”
- “I couldn’t remember which company was which.”
- “I went with whoever got me pricing fastest.”
That last comment stung.
When you blend in, the market defaults to price.
Once CanyonTech reclaimed a differentiated, data-backed position rooted in a strength no competitor could claim, their win rate rebounded by 31% in one quarter.
Not because they got louder.
Because they got unmistakably different.
Why Copying Competitors Is So Dangerous
Assumptions are dangerous. But imitation is fatal.
As I teach in Battle 5, copying your competitors doesn’t just weaken your brand; it hands them your market share on a silver platter.
When you imitate:
- You dilute your perceived value.
- You force buyers into comparison mode.
- You trigger margin erosion.
- You hide your strongest competitive advantages.
- You cripple internal alignment.
If customers can’t articulate why you’re different, they assume you aren’t.
And the moment they compare, you’ve already lost control of the narrative.
Sameness commoditizes. Commodities compete on price.
Most companies never discover their real differentiators because they’re too busy mirroring others.
Teams can’t rally around a “unique position” that isn’t unique at all.
I often tell CEOs this, and they don’t love hearing it:
If your brand sounds like everyone else’s, you don’t have a messaging problem. You have a leadership problem.
What True Differentiation Looks Like in Practice
Differentiation isn’t a marketing exercise.
It’s a strategic choice.
Inside the 12 Battles™ Framework, Battle 5 lays out what it takes to build a position that’s truly uncopyable. Here are five hallmarks of real differentiation, the kind that actually increases market share:
- You Claim a Position No One Else Owns
- Your Messaging Is Believable, Provable, and Defensible
- You’re Willing to Alienate the Wrong Buyers
- You Stop Speaking in Industry Generalities
- You Build Your Brand Around a Singular Idea
Not a slightly better version of their claim.
Your own claim.
If you can’t support it with evidence, it’s not a differentiator. It’s a wish.
Differentiation requires the courage to say, “We’re not for everyone.”
No more “best in class,” “top-tier service,” or “leading provider.”
Those aren’t differentiators. They’re filler words.
One core truth your market cannot get anywhere else.
As I say in the book:
“Companies that dare to be different rise above the noise.”
Case Study: How One Bold Position Rewrote the Entire Playbook
A manufacturing client of ours spent years battling commoditization. Their competitors all promised the same things: lower cost, fast turnaround, technical support.
When we conducted market research, we uncovered one insight no one internally had ever considered:
Their buyers valued uptime protection more than product specs.
Not one competitor owned that idea.
Not one competitor even talked about it.
They were all too focused on features and prices.
When we repositioned the brand around guaranteed uptime, their true differentiator, everything shifted:
- Their sales cycle shortened by 28%.
- Their margin grew by double digits.
- Their internal team rallied around a purpose that finally felt true.
They didn’t change their product.
They changed their position.
And it changed everything.
Why Different Always Beats “Better”
Every CEO wants to say they’re better.
But “better” is subjective. Debatable. Easy to copy.
Different is undeniable.
The companies who win aren’t the ones who chase slight improvements over their competitors. They’re the ones who build a category within a category, something competitors can’t replicate without looking like copycats.
Battle 5 is a wake-up call.
A challenge.
A line in the sand.
It asks leaders to stop playing the comparison game and start escaping it entirely.
Start a Revolution: Dare to Be the One They Can’t Ignore
Battle 5 of The B2B Marketing Revolution® is a rallying cry:
Torch the sameness.
Break the pattern.
Claim the position your competitors are too afraid to take.
When you choose differentiation:
- Your brand becomes recognizable.
- Your message becomes memorable.
- Your company becomes uncopyable.
And suddenly, market share becomes the natural byproduct of clarity.
So ask yourself, and answer honestly:
“If my brand disappeared tomorrow, what would the market lose that it couldn’t replace?”
If that answer doesn’t come easily, you don’t need more marketing.
You need a revolution.
Start yours now.
Dare to be different.
Dare to stand alone.
Dare to win.
By Lori Turner-Wilson, RedRover CEO/Founder, Internationally Best-Selling Author of The B2B Marketing Revolution™: A Battle Plan for Guaranteed Outcomes
Taking Action
The above insights are part of hundreds of best practices found in The B2B Marketing Revolution™: A Battle Plan for Guaranteed Outcomes — the playbook that middle-market B2B CEOs and marketing leaders lean on to scale. Backed by a groundbreaking research study, this book offers time-tested best practices, indispensable KPIs for benchmarking, insights on where your dollars are best spent, and, above all, the proven 12 Battles™ Framework for generating guaranteed marketing outcomes. The B2B Marketing Revolution™ is a battle-hardened approach to becoming an outcomes-first leader who’s ready to shake up the status quo, invest in high-payoff market research and optimization, and — yes — even torch what’s not serving your endgame. Download more than 50 templates, scripts, and tools from the book on the Battle Reader Hub.
If you’d like to talk about how to build a marketing engine that delivers predictable results — whether you want to build it yourself or tag in our team to lead the way — we’d be delighted to help you get started.
