Generic Positioning Is a Tax on Growth

^{This 3-minute read brought to you by the team at Rogue Pine}

Most companies don’t lose deals because they’re bad at what they do.

They lose because people don’t understand who they’re for or what they do. 

On an upcoming episode of the Grow Rogue podcast, Dave VanderJagt discusses a quiet but costly problem in B2B marketing: generic positioning. 

When brands try to appeal to everyone, they end up appealing to no one. That results in slower sales cycles, attracting the wrong leads, and forcing marketing teams to work harder for diminishing returns.

Generic language doesn’t feel risky, but it quietly taxes growth.

Why vague positioning slows everything down

When messaging isn’t clear, buyers do more work:

• They struggle to see themselves in your solution

• Sales teams have to over-explain value on every call

• Marketing compensates with more content, more campaigns, and more spending

The result is friction across the entire revenue engine.

Dave’s RevOps lens makes this especially visible. 

When positioning is fuzzy, forecasting becomes harder, pipeline quality drops, and teams chase volume instead of fit.

Clarity doesn’t limit growth. It accelerates it.

One of the biggest myths that Dave challenges is the idea that specificity shrinks your market.

In reality, clear ICP focus speeds everything up:

• Better-fit leads move faster

• Sales conversations start at a higher level

• Marketing stops educating the wrong audience

This aligns closely with April Dunford’s work: strong positioning isn’t about what you offer. Instead, it’s about the context buyers use to understand you.

The hidden cost that marketing teams absorb

When positioning is generic, marketing becomes a very costly cleanup crew:

• Writing copy that tries to work for multiple audiences

• Supporting sales with one-off explanations

• Filling pipeline gaps created upstream

None of this compounds. It just keeps the system running with stagnated growth.

A simple positioning gut check

If growth feels harder than it should, ask:

• Can our best customer recognize themselves in our homepage headline?

• Do our sales calls start with explanation or momentum?

• Are we optimizing for relevance or for volume?

Generic positioning doesn’t feel like a mistake. It feels safe.

But it quietly impedes growth. 

Instead, take a different approach by clarifying positioning. 

Check out recent episodes of the Grow Rogue podcast and stay tuned for the up-and-coming episode with Dave VanderJagt.