B2BFYI #9: Standing out when everyone sounds the same

Welcome! 👋 The B2BFYI newsletter is for complex B2B marketers looking for a competitive edge. Covering brand, content, technology and lead generation, B2BFYI serves as a guide to building a more effective marketing strategy.

B2BFYI is written by industry veterans Chris Bennett (Strategy), Geoff Bretherick (Creative) and Philip Bennison (Tech), and published weekly. You can sign up here to get issues straight to your inbox.

In 2025 I worked with two recruitment firms as clients. Both wanted help with their positioning in what has been a very difficult market for them.

Both told me they were "different."

Both had messaging that said, essentially: "We're not like other recruiters. We actually care about fit. We take time to understand your business."

The platitudes went on. And on.

I put their websites side by side. Swapped the logos. You genuinely couldn't tell which was which.

They'd become identical 𝘣𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘦 they were both trying so hard to differentiate. It didn’t help that the common denominator was latching onto USPs which were just so incredibly generic. Some had no meaning, nothing substantial behind the words.

The “we’re not like other recruiters” message is such a great example because virtually all recruitment firms like to say this - not necessarily always at the top of their hompage, but the CEO would certainly lead with that if you asked them about their business.

The reason it falls on its ass is that I have to counter with “yes, but are you REALLY?”. In 95% of cases, there’s literally nothing that sets them apart from competitors. They all offer the same damn service, delivered in virtually identical ways. Why try and pretend you’ve just discovered recruiting as a service? And no, a sector specialism is not a USP. It’s literally just what you do.

This is the case for virtually all B2B businesses.

I worked with a consulting firm recently whose "innovation" message matched 7 out of 10 competitors when we did the audit. Almost word for word in some places.

And another client is a technology firm whose USPs aligned almost perfectly with every major player in their category. Same benefits. Same proof points. The same "we're the partner you can trust" energy.

Makes it awfully difficult for a customer to make a buying decision.

The lesson? The harder B2B companies try to stand out, the more they converge.

And it's getting worse.

Layer 1: The “best practices” trap

Everyone in B2B marketing is basically winging it. What works for one company doesn’t always work for another. It’s why you see some campaigns blow up and others, even ones by large, award-winning agencies, crash and burn.

None of us have a crystal ball, and experience often collides dramatically with reality in ways that are difficult to predict. Then there’s the constant evolution of technology and audience behaviour and expectations. And this isn’t even throwing in economic or political upheaval.

That’s a lot of variables.

To get around this, we marketers like to hang around “best practice” like boyscouts around a campfire. It’s the closest we can get to “doing it right”.

Everyone reads the same playbooks. Follows the same frameworks. Attends the same webinars about "what's working right now." Advice from someone who got lucky once and is now a LinkedIn guru.

The result? Messaging templates get recycled across entire industries.

"Trusted partner." "Tailored solutions." "Results-driven approach." "We put people first."

It's B2B bingo. And everyone's playing with the same card. And it’s all noise.

Layer 2: AI acceleration

Same tools. Same training data. Same outputs.

When every marketing team is using ChatGPT to write their homepage copy, the homogenisation is baked in from the start. Content production has scaled, no doubt about that. But so has mediocrity.

I've seen competitors with near-identical "About Us" pages because they all prompted the same AI with the same brief. Nobody noticed because nobody checked.

Layer 3: Category messaging convergence

Competitors study each other. They see what "works" and mirror it. Folks are looking at the competitor they most want to resemble (perhaps it’s that firm with the sexy brand, the industry accolades and the huge profits) and simply copying their homework. It’s good for a quick fix when you’re not sure what to do, or just generally not confident with being bold about your own position as a business, but this just leads to everyone following the exact same path.

The moment a positioning angle proves effective, everyone piles in. "Innovation" becomes meaningless. "Partnership" becomes table stakes. USPs get commoditised before the ink is dry.

These three layers compound. Best practices inform AI prompts. AI outputs get copied by competitors. Competitors' messaging becomes the new best practice.

Round and round it goes.

Fear of being wrong

Copying competitors feels safe. If everyone's saying it, surely that's what buyers want to hear, right? If the competitor is successful, then if we copy them, we’ll be successful too, right?

Differentiation requires conviction. Conviction means you might be wrong. And being wrong is terrifying when there's budget (and your job) on the line.

Positioning by committee

The more stakeholders involved, the more edges get sanded off.

Bold becomes "balanced." Distinct becomes "inclusive of all our service lines." Anything remotely spicy gets watered down until it offends no one and excites no one either. Bland, grey, boring, dull. Zero impact. Might as well have not bothered!

I've watched genuinely sharp positioning get committee'd into beige mush more times than I can count.

Mistaking features for positioning

Most USPs describe what you do, not why it matters differently.

"We have AI-powered analytics." So does everyone else.

"We offer dedicated support." So does everyone else.

"We take a consultative approach." So does everyone else.

Features aren't differentiation. They're the cost of entry. Table stakes.

What do you believe that your competitors don't? What's your take on the industry that might ruffle a few feathers?

A strong opinion polarises. That's literally the point. It’s hard to scroll past. Hard to ignore.

Basecamp built an entire brand on being anti-growth in a growth-obsessed industry. Agree or disagree, you remember where they stand.

Most B2B brands have no discernible point of view at all. They believe in "quality" and "excellence" and "putting clients first." Which is another way of saying they believe in nothing.

Narrow wins. Every time.

"We help B2B SaaS companies with 50-200 employees fix their onboarding" is infinitely more powerful than "we help businesses grow."

The fear of excluding people creates messaging that includes no one. You can't be the obvious choice for everyone. But you can be the obvious choice for someone.

Personality is a moat.

Rough edges are memorable. Corporate smoothness is forgettable. I used the word “ass” earlier in this newsletter. Not to be edgy, but it’s because I actually speak like that. I curse like an agitated sailor, and I don’t hold back in business meetings. I’m not here to put a lame, corporate veneer over who I actually am. Clients hire me for my expertise, not my ability to moderate my language. And folks remember me after a call.

If your content could be swapped with a competitor's and nobody would notice, that's not a design problem. It's a courage problem.

"We're innovative" is a claim. Anyone can make it. Most do.

A story about how you approached a problem differently is proof. It's specific. It's yours. It can't be copied.

Buyers don't remember bullet points. They remember narratives.

The competitor swap test

Take your homepage headline. Swap in a competitor's logo. Does it still work?

If yes, you have a sameness problem. Full stop.

The “so what?” ladder

For every claim you make, ask "so what?" until you hit something only you can say.

Most companies stop two rungs too early. They land on "we deliver results" when they should keep going until they reach something actually distinctive.

For example, one of my clients, Impel Talent, combine their elite recruitment services with leadership coaching, ensuring senior hires are prepared for demanding roles. Not many of their competitors offer that, if any.

The belief inventory

List five things you believe about your industry that others might disagree with.

If you can't find any, your positioning is borrowed. You're renting someone else's point of view. Find your own.

The B2B landscape is drowning in "differentiated" companies that all sound identical.

AI made it worse. Best practices made it worse. Fear of standing out made it worse.

The companies that actually cut through aren't louder. They're more specific, more opinionated, and more willing to be for someone rather than for everyone.

Standing out isn't a messaging exercise. It's a decision about what you're willing to sacrifice to be remembered.

1. Run the competitor swap test this week. Be honest about the results.

2. Find one belief you hold that competitors would disagree with. Build content around it. See what happens.

3. Audit your USPs. Are they truly unique, or just table stakes dressed up in fancy language? Be honest.

4. Cut one “safe” message. Replace it with something specific enough to alienate someone. If it doesn't make you slightly uncomfortable, it's probably not distinctive enough.

The goal isn't to be different for the sake of it. The goal is to be remembered by the people who matter.

And right now, most B2B brands are thoroughly forgettable.

-chris