What we do

Firebrick is a strategic consultancy exclusively focused on positioning strategies that accelerate revenue, valuation, and category leadership for B2B tech companies. Through our unique Positioning Alchemy Revenue Ignition Process, we deliver a fresh narrative that wakes up the market, meaningfully connects your value with buyers, and drives clear differentiation. We help you stand out and show why you matter. No one will ever see your company the same way again — including you.

Company and
product positioning

Strong, differentiated corporate positioning is foundational for B2B tech success and a hallmark of every significant category leader. A company’s North Star. For most companies, this is really hard to do. “Me too.” Low ACV. No buyer urgency. Too low in sales cycles. We shift the focus from features and “geek speak” to a promise that changes your customer’s world. Get ready to wow buyers, “own” a distinct corner of the category and cut through the noise.

Identifying the right positioning strategy is critical for growth, valuation and category power. Firebrick identifies alternatives, ignites debate and helps drive executives alignment. Leveraging proven models, Firebrick steps executives through buyer, category, differentiation and expansion strategies to shape a winning strategy and build the deep conviction needed to commit to it. Winning strategies for category creation or disruption, integrating acquisitions, competing against goliaths, moving up/down market, re-energizing a legacy portfolio, shifting to multi-product portfolio and more.
The heart of the Firebrick deliverables is the Positioning Story or embodied in a corporate/first-call sales presentation. We deliver a bigger story rooted in a compelling point of view that engages executive buyers, with a powerful, fresh narrative that brings your company and product to life. The buyer-centric storyline reframes the company in the context of a multimillion-dollar buyer problem, shows buyers a promised land and sets the buying criteria. Differentiators are up-leveled to value-based headlines with supporting evidence. A visually designed marketecture connects the story to the product.
The Positioning Message Guide is written to help your marketing team operationalize the Positioning Story. The “guiding voice,” it is used as the foundation for operationalizing the story through your marketing channels — website, campaigns, PR — as well as informing brand refresh. We deliver a prose-based document with elevator messages in short, medium and long formats, along with a message framework.

Positioning Alchemy

Firebrick Revenue Ignition Process

Preparation and Assessment

We immerse ourselves in your business, diving deeply into revenue drivers, sales cycle challenges and customer and market perceptions. We also want to fully understand your technologies. Through interviews with your executives and key sales, product and support teams — as well as your customers — we quickly determine what’s working (and what’s not). We combine these insights with a thorough review of your existing positioning along with analyst research and a survey of the competitive landscape. We integrate it all to create a thoughtful assessment to frame and focus the positioning initiative.

Strategy and Storyline Development

The magic begins in an “all-hands” immersive workshop as we come together to imagine more. We align your executive team through an in-depth, “buyer-centric” process that ignites debate on buyers, the “problem solved” category and differentiation strategies. We explore alternatives for reframing your company and creating a viewpoint and fresh vivid language that awakens executive buyers to your value. Once we have alignment on these positioning elements, Firebrick develops and presents initial storyline concepts. Together, we then shape and refine these ideas into a single, powerful narrative that compels target buyers and builds enduring differentiation and category power.

Operationalization Journey

Firebrick can continue the journey with you as a committed advisor to validate and refresh your positioning, mobilize planning and enable field sales teams. As the positioning is rolled out and the market reacts, we provide strategic counsel on issues that arise and conduct periodic reviews/refinements to keep the positioning fresh, impactful and relevant. At the same time, we up-level your marketing team’s positioning skills through knowledge transfer and training to become positioning ninjas.

Sales Activation

We help you operationalize your Positioning Story to the point of revenue. We’re not done until it is internalized and activated by your field sales and channel teams. The litmus test for any effective positioning is how well it transforms the sales organization to shorten sales cycles and drive new revenue. Through focused learning events, we help cement your sales team’s grasp of your new positioning in different sales situations through education, role-playing, peer training and certifications.

External feedback and insights can be powerful tools to inform and fine-tune your Positioning Story. Leveraging a market research firm, Firebrick provides testing and validation of positioning with target buyer prospects. Together, we develop the research strategy and validation plan, recruit target buyers and test the story through professionally moderated one-to-one interviews and focus groups. Our Findings Report summarizes the research with actionable recommendations.
B2B tech markets move fast. Firebrick provides periodic, systematic reviews of your Positioning Story, taking into consideration new market dynamics, competitive moves, sales cycles and customer feedback, as well as new product capabilities. We package these learnings into a findings analysis and evolve the Positioning Story and messaging as needed.
Positioning is an increasingly essential skill for CMOs, VPs and product marketers. Yet, most leaders are ill-equipped to produce world-class positioning. They lack a standard process or are held back by outdated methods and dense frameworks that don’t move the needle. Firebrick-certified Skills Training transforms product marketers into positioning ninjas. We up-level your teams’ skills with a best-practices framework. Through the transfer of our IP and accumulated knowledge, your leaders and product marketers can build strategies, storylines and messaging that wake up the market and clarify exactly why your buyers need you.