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How to differentiate when everyone claims the same thing

Quick confession: I sometimes have to stop clients mid-sentence in positioning workshops.

It’s not that they’re wrong on anything. And even if they were, those are the issues we want to bring up during the workshop. Rather, when working on their positioning, they’re trying to solve the wrong problem.

During this collaborative exercises we’re mapping our competitive alternatives—all the ways prospects might use or be aware of to solve their problem.

Then we dig into their competitors’ claims.

“They say AI-powered but it’s barely automated rules.”

“We’ve tested their 98% accuracy claim and it’s way off.”

“That seamless integration takes three weeks minimum.”

All true. Probably.

But here’s how I try and redirect them:

Your prospects (likely) haven’t tested the competitor (or not enough anyway). They’ve seen a homepage. Maybe for 30 seconds.

They don’t know the AI is overhyped.

They don’t know the accuracy is inflated.

They don’t know the integration is painful.

They see the claim, and they believe the claim. That’s their perception.

And perception is what you’re fighting.

Not truth. Perception.

This matters for two reasons:

1. Differentiation happens at the perception layer.

For the sake of this example, let’s stick with the regurgitated and tired “AI-powered”.

If every competitor claims to be AI-powered (whether real or not), you saying “we’re also AI-powered” doesn’t differentiate. You need to counter the perception with “something like human-verified by real researchers” or “accuracy you can audit” or something that stands apart from what prospects think competitors offer.

2. Perceptions can be mapped systematically.

Here’s the framework I use when analyzing competitor sites:

Motivation copy: What outcomes do they promise? What pains do they claim to solve? (Tells you what mental space they’re claiming, the famous conversation happening in your customers’ heads.)
Value copy: What benefits do they call unique? What’s their “only we do X” angle? (Tells you their perceived differentiation.)
Anxiety copy: What objections do they address upfront? What guarantees? (Tells you their perceived vulnerabilities.)
Positioning: Based on all that—what bucket would a prospect drop them into after 30 seconds?

Map this for your top 3-5 alternatives and you have something useful: a perception landscape.

Stop thinking about what your competitors actually do, and start thinking about what prospects believe they do.

That’s what you differentiate against.

A meta-point for you?

This works in both directions.

When you map their perceptions, you find gaps and angles for your positioning.

Hopefully you’re better than your “lying” competitors, so when you craft your claims, you need to make sure they’re grounded in real, hard truth—because eventually prospects will experience your product. And you want reality to match (or beat) your promise to retain them longer.

When I work with clients on their positioning, once we stop debating what competitors actually deliver and focus on what their prospects see and believe, the flood gates open.

New angles emerge. Sometimes it’s a feature nobody else highlights. Sometimes it’s positioning into an entirely different category—because when everyone in your space claims the same things, the smartest move might be reframing the game entirely.

Different lens.

Different positioning.

So, when you think about your competition, are you mapping their reality or their perceived reality?

Because, no matter how harsh this might be, the latter often shapes what your prospects believe before they ever talk to you.

DISCOVERY

I was recently on The Revenue Circle podcast talking about something most SaaS teams misdiagnose:

Their messaging alignment problem.

In this episode, we unpack:

Why revenue is designed, not accidental
How misaligned messaging quietly kills conversion—before copy or UX ever get a chance
The Observe → Distill → Crystallize model for turning messy research into clear, scalable messaging
What message–market fit actually looks like inside real teams (sales, marketing, product)
How AI can amplify research and insight—without replacing strategic thinking

If you’ve ever felt like your messaging is “fine” but not doing enough work, this conversation will clarify how you think about messaging as infrastructure—not just words on a page.

🎧 Listen to the episode here →