The Headless Chicken Syndrome - and the Connection to Your Ideal Customer Profile

Introduction

In the competitive world of B2B tech companies, it is not uncommon to find organizations working diligently and very hard, yet struggling to gain momentum. Despite claims of alignment and understanding the market, there seems to be a missing cohesion that inhibits overall success. As founders, product marketing and go-to-market leaders, it is important to dig deeper into this phenomenon that I call the Headless Chicken Syndrome and understand its connection to your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP), or better lack thereof.

The Root Causes

Throughout my career, I have encountered numerous situations where business leaders fall short in one or more of the following dimensions:

1. Lack of ICP Knowledge: This refers to a company's unfamiliarity with its ideal customer profile. Without a clear understanding of who their target customers are, it becomes challenging to tailor product development and go to market efforts effectively.
2. Lack of ICP Communication: Even if business leadership has identified the ICP, it is essential to communicate this profile to the entire organization. Without this shared understanding, teams may operate independently, resulting in fragmented messaging and customer experiences.
3. Fear of Losing Revenue: Lastly, in some cases, organizations hesitate to execute on their ICP most often due to the fear of losing revenue from non-ICP segments. This hesitation can lead to a lack of focus and a failure to optimize resources for maximum impact.

The B2B Practitioners Approach: Unveiling the Mutual Understanding Within Your Team

When I suspect a case of Headless Chicken Syndrome, it’s crucial to test and validate this diagnosis. Having worked in product marketing for various companies and industries over the past 15+ years, I have honed an effective process that consistently delivers results.

The first step is usually interviewing key people and then running a representative questionnaire across all job levels across the entire go to market organization. In addition, my team and I will listen in on customer and prospect calls. This GTM focused approach provides us with a very granular insight as to the company’s true level of understanding and alignment with regards to target customers, pain points and value proposition.?

In a second step, we do also involve the product development team and try to gain clarity on who and what they are developing for. Without a clear understanding of the target audience, product development may fall victim to what I call "Feature F*ck."

This expression refers to the tendency to adding more and more features across the board, regardless of whether it is necessary or aligns with an overarching product story. It’s again a reflection of the missing core target segment - and thus product development reacts to competition and sales requests.

After these two steps and subsequent discussions with the leadership team I can then pinpoint the root cause of the business’ challenges.

The Consequences: Welcome to the Headless Chicken Syndrome

When businesses fail to address the above dimensions, the Headless Chicken Syndrome emerges. Picture a team of marketers and sellers running around, pitching vague and inconsistent messages to everyone they encounter. The lack of a clear understanding of the ICP leads to confusion, evasion, and desperation within the organization. This syndrome impacts not just marketing efforts but also product development, resulting in feature-based decisions without a cohesive product story in mind.

Clear Positioning for Success: Deciding on Your Target Customers and Personas

Clear positioning is essential for success, and a smaller company cannot afford to be everything to everyone. A positioning that tries to cater to every possible customer ends up appealing to no one. By defining a clear set of customers and personas, businesses can communicate their value proposition more effectively. Analyzing past opportunities and understanding why some customers chose competitors over your product can provide valuable insights into your positioning gaps.

Standing Out from the Competition: Building a Positioning on Value Pillars

A successful positioning strategy should be built on 1 to 3 value pillars at most. Customers want to know why you stand out from the competition, and this requires a deep understanding of your target audience's needs and pain points. For a company with a very rich feature set or broad product portfolio, it may be necessary to identify which product or feature combination offers the best initial opportunity to land customers and create a foundation for future expansion.

Winning in the Niche: The Key to Growing Big

To gain traction and establish a strong market position, it is crucial for smaller companies to focus on one ICP, and consequently one Go-To-Market strategy at a time. Attempting to build multiple Go-To-Markets simultaneously stretches resources thin and dilutes their impact. Each segment requires different product requirements, reference customers, competitive alternatives, and sales processes. By concentrating on a single niche market, businesses can allocate their resources more effectively and develop a clear and resonant positioning in the industry.

(I recommend regularly revisting Geoffrey Moore 's "Crossing the Chasm")

Conclusion: Making a Deliberate Decision and Unlocking Your Business's Potential

It is vital for businesses to make deliberate decisions on which segments to focus on and win. This decision requires a thorough understanding of your ideal customer profile and aligning the entire organization behind a clear positioning strategy. As experienced product marketers and go-to-market experts, we recommend facilitating a deliberate process to collaborate on this crucial business decision. It may be beneficial to bring in outside support for this exercise.

By addressing the Headless Chicken Syndrome and establishing a robust ICP-focused strategy, your company can unlock its true potential and drive sustainable growth in the market.