What to Do When Your SaaS Looks Exactly Like the Competition

60% of SaaS founders can't name one thing their product does that a competitor doesn't. If your homepage sounds like three other products in your category, you don't have a product problem - you have a positioning problem. You're describing what you do, not where you win.

Why this happens

The default move when entering a market is to study competitors and match them feature-for-feature. That's how you end up with the same homepage, the same benefit bullets, and the same "for teams that want to move fast" tagline as everyone else. According to positioning research across B2B SaaS, over 60% of SaaS founders cannot articulate a single thing their product does that a competitor doesn't - not because there's nothing different, but because the differentiation was never made explicit. The problem is almost always framing, not functionality.

What to check first

Before rewriting your homepage or launching a rebrand, run through these four diagnostic questions.

1. Can you name one buyer type where you win more often than competitors?
Not "small businesses" or "enterprise" - a specific type of person with a specific workflow problem. If you can't name them, your positioning has no anchor.

2. Is your differentiation about features or outcomes?
"We have an AI-powered dashboard" is a feature. "Operations managers at 20-person agencies close their books 4 hours faster" is an outcome. Buyers buy outcomes. If your positioning is feature-first, it reads like everyone else's.

3. Does your homepage say the same things as your top 3 competitors?
Open your homepage and the homepages of your three closest competitors in separate tabs. If the headlines are interchangeable, your positioning hasn't done its job yet.

4. Do your existing customers use language you don't use in your copy?
This is the most useful gap to find. Your best customers have already figured out why you're the right choice. If they're using words you're not, your positioning is behind your product.

How to fix it

The goal isn't to be different in every dimension - it's to own one specific position where you're the obvious choice, even if you're not the best in every scenario.

Start with your won deals from the last 90 days. Look for the pattern: same industry, same company size, same workflow problem, same competitor you beat. That pattern is your wedge.

A wedge is the intersection of a specific segment, a specific situation, and a specific outcome. "The CRM for solo consultants who bill by project, not by seat" is a wedge. "The CRM for growing teams" is not.

Once you have the wedge, test it. Show it to five people who fit your target buyer. Ask them: "Does this feel like it was written for you?" If three of five say yes, you have a viable position. If they all say "sort of," you're still too broad.

Your positioning doesn't need to win every buyer. It needs to make the right buyers feel like you built this specifically for them. That's what drives conversion, referral, and lower churn - not feature depth.

Remove the guesswork

Finding your wedge through customer interviews and homepage rewrites takes weeks, and you can only interview so many people before your sample gets noisy. RightPositioning tests your positioning against synthetic buyer panels - simulating how different buyer types actually respond to your current angle versus alternative framings, and showing you exactly where you win versus competitors in the buyer's mind. You get a differentiation read in hours, not weeks.

Test your positioning with RightPositioning