The Dangers of Telling a Story That Resonates With People

Today I’m joined by Hana Abaza, an experienced SaaS Marketer. Most recently, Hana served as Shopify’s Global Head of Revenue Marketing where she helped them reach billions of dollars in revenue. In today’s episode, we discuss how Shopify successfully moved upmarket as they introduced Shopify Plus. We explore the competitive alternatives they faced, how they differentiated their offerings, and the importance of their partner influence program. Together we cover storytelling (and what most people get wrong), differentiated value,and the importance of understanding your customer’s point of view. 

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In This Episode, I Cover:

(00:00) Welcome to the Positioning Show

(00:40) About our guest Hana Abaza, and what to expect in this episode

(02:34) Shopify’s growth trajectory and why they decided to go upmarket

(05:04) The first time April heard Shopify pitch Shopify Plus

(08:17) Shopify’s competitive alternatives  

(10:22) How they launched Shopify Plus and differentiated it from Shopify 

(12:53) The positioning timeline

(14:32) How they shifted Shopify’s positioning and the customer perspective

(16:09) Utilizing their partner influence program

(18:43) The importance of customer word of mouth

(19:43) How and when the sales team was enabled 

(23:30) Shopify’s corporate narrative and the value props for different segments 

(27:25) Why most rebrands are a waste of time

(29:25) Storytelling, and what most people get wrong

(34:00) How April approaches differentiated value and competitive alternatives 

(37:00) Understanding the customer's POV

(40:49) What’s next for Hana

(43:03) Thanks for listening

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Where To Find Hana Abaza:

Website: https://hanaabaza.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hanaabaza/?originalSubdomain=ca

Twitter: https://twitter.com/hanaabaza

Where To Find April:

Podcast Website: https://www.positioning.show/ 

Personal Website: https://www.aprildunford.com/ 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aprildunford/ 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aprildunford/ 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/aprildunford

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Referenced:

• Shopify Plus: https://www.shopify.com/plus

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Production and marketing by https://penname.co/