a single source, nothing corroborates it

Beat the platform vendor on category, not features

When the cloud provider ships something adjacent, a feature-by-feature argument loses, because any lead is temporary and buyers eliminate you on perception before they ever compare. Position against the whole class of platform-bundled options and lean on what a bundle structurally cannot do. Get that list from the customers who already chose you over the vendor rather than from a whiteboard.

The method

1. 01

   Position against the whole class of platform-vendor solutions rather than comparing features, because buyers now eliminate options on perception before any feature comparison happens and any feature lead is temporary.

2. 02

   The differentiators that hold up against a platform vendor are running anywhere with anything, serving non-technical users who would otherwise wait on engineers, being complete rather than a building block, being purpose-built for one industry, and giving every customer expert support.

3. 03

   Build that positioning from the reasons customers actually chose you over the cloud vendor - interview the ones who did rather than guessing.

What it returned

• He describes the buying decision shifting from build versus buy to build versus buy versus using whatever the cloud platform offers.

• He ran these buyer interviews for Gravitational and for Netlify.

Sources

• When AWS, Azure, or GCP Becomes the CompetitionGreg Kogan · gkogan.co · Position Against the Category, Not the Product · 2019-10-25