Diana Khramina is the Product Marketing lead at Gorgias, a series C startup with 400+ employees, and previously a McKinsey consultant.
In today’s SaaS landscape, every company claims to be “AI-powered.” But when everyone is saying the same thing, the message gets lost—and customers struggle to tell products apart.
That’s exactly why my company decided to make a bold move: Reposition from a Helpdesk powered by AI to a true conversational AI platform for e-commerce. Here’s how we did it, what we learned and how we’re measuring success:
Why We Decided To Reposition
Several signals made it clear it was time for change:
We witnessed a strategic shift toward AI. AI is no longer just part of our product—it is the product, so we wanted to move from using AI as a feature to making it our core value.
We have new buyer personas. We decided to go after another group: the ecommerce director or vice president that cares more about the overall business impact compared to the customer experience persona.
We have an opportunity to seize upmarket motion. We decided to shift our focus towards large enterprise brands, so we needed a message that reflects our ability to serve enterprise needs.
We are experiencing fierce competition. Thirteen major players—and many more smaller ones—claim similar features. Without clear differentiation, we were often seen as the pricier option.
We have a complex product line. With five products across two personas, it became harder to tell a cohesive story.
How We Built The New Positioning
We followed April Dunford’s positioning methodology, an approach that uses a series of questions to help you clarify what makes you unique. It helped us focus the conversation on why we matter—not just what we do. Here’s a snapshot of our work:
Competitive Alternatives
Question: If you didn’t exist, what would customers use?
Without our company, brands may use generic helpdesks or multiple disjointed tools.
Key Unique Attributes
Question: What features/capabilities do you have that others do not?
Our platform is built for e-commerce, deeply integrated with Shopify and powered by AI that resolves full conversations.
Value
Question: What value do the attributes enable for customers?
Our AI understands the brand’s store, tech stack and customer behavior to drive personalized, 1:1 conversations—while also surfacing complex queries to agents who get a full customer view.
Customers That Care
Question: Who cares a lot about that value?
We want to attract high-growth e-commerce brands looking to improve operational margins by automating support and driving revenue.
Market You Win
Question: What context makes the value obvious to your target segments?
Our value becomes obvious when ecommerce brands face high volumes of repetitive support tickets and want to scale personalized, round-the-clock customer experience without adding headcount. It’s especially clear for Shopify merchants who want a support platform deeply integrated with their storefront.
How To Align The Company Around Your New Position
A successful repositioning isn’t just about the message—it’s about getting everyone on board and bringing it to market quickly. Here’s the playbook we followed:
Leadership Alignment (December)
• Initiated a one-month sprint to align the CEO, CRO, CPO and GTM leaders
• Held 3-4 formal workshops to collect feedback and build buy-in
Launch Event (January)
• Did a big reveal with two high-profile customers
• Released website updates, CEO video and coordinated social campaign
• Targeted email sequences with persona-specific messaging
Cross-Team Asset Updates (January To March)
• Created central documenation for all teams, including positioning changes, pitch, value props and glossary
• Rolled out updated positioning across sales, marketing, partnerships and success teams
• Prioritized key assets, such as sales decks, website pages and a quarterly business review template
• Kicked off a quality assurance process to ensure consistency across every touchpoint
Reaffirming The Positioning (May)
• Held an in-person event for more than 300 customers
• Launched new product with live demo
• Sent in-product and email announcements reinforcing our message
Lessons We Learned
I’m proud of how quickly we executed. In under 90 days, we went from idea to aligned company and live positioning. Here’s what we learned in the process:
Positioning is harder when products are evolving. Product maturity impacts your message—aim to position 3-6 months ahead, but stay flexible.
Repetition builds alignment. Talk about the positioning monthly, train each team and run quizzes to test understanding.
Communicate in waves. A single launch won’t stick. Plan follow-up campaigns and events to reinforce the message.
It’s a project management job. Repositioning is cross-functional. You need a clear owner, a strong communicator and a structured plan.
Use storytelling frameworks. Product suites and customer flywheels help internal teams and customers remember how everything fits together.
Bundle products into suites. If you serve different personas, group products accordingly to clarify use cases.
How To Measure Success
Positioning affects everything—from awareness to retention—so you need to choose the right metrics. For us, the goal was to drive adoption of our AI products. Here are the key metrics we track:
AI Agent Deal Volume
How many new customers choose us for our AI capabilities?
AI Agent Close Rate
Does our sales narrative resonate strongly enough to convert prospects into customers?
AI Product Adoption
Are more users adopting AI features over time?
Beyond these, we also track conversion rates from AI-focused landing pages, organic search visibility for AI-related keywords, AI-related campaign performance and adoption and usage of AI across existing accounts.
In closing, repositioning isn’t just a marketing exercise. It’s a strategic shift that impacts the entire business—from product to sales to customer success. If you’re leading a SaaS company in a crowded space, clarity is your competitive advantage. Don’t just say you’re different. Show it. Align your team, tell a compelling story and back it up with a great product. And most importantly? Tell your story with conviction—then live up to it, every single day.
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