Great B2B positioning will die inside the company if it doesn’t successfully make the jump from marketing to sales.| Positioning with April Dunford
Storytelling is a popular topic among marketers. But you know what rarely comes up? Sales. Or selling, for that matter. We might admit that we aim to inspire customers to take action with our storytelling, but selling rarely gets a mention. Sales, on the other hand, doesn't seem to have marketing's thirst for stories.| Positioning with April Dunford
In positioning work, we need to understand the competitive landscape or what we need to position against.| Positioning with April Dunford
I am frequently asked about how we handle positioning where we have multiple products, serving multiple market segments, and being bought by a range of different personas.| Positioning with April Dunford
Good morning, cherished newsletter subscribers!| Positioning with April Dunford
I work with technology companies, and in general, everyone in the company outside of sales finds selling uncomfortable - particularly founders.| Positioning with April Dunford
The day is finally here – it’s Sales Pitch book launch day!| Positioning with April Dunford
What's the relationship between our company's Vision, Strategy, and Positioning, and how does that impact the way we tell the story of a startup?| Positioning with April Dunford
Want to improve your product's positioning but not sure where to start? This article is going to give you everything you need to get started including what positioning is, why it matters, and how to improve it.| aprildunford.substack.com
In my positioning work, it is not unusual for teams to confuse value for customers with what I would call “objection handling.”| aprildunford.substack.com
Copying features isn't as easy as the marketers think it is. But why bother to do that when you can simply say you have capabilities you don't? Are you competing against dirty liars? Here's how to fight back.| aprildunford.substack.com
We all operate in competitive markets, and often, it feels like our competitors’ strengths are impossible to overcome. In this post we examine how to turn your competitor's biggest strength into a weakness.| Positioning with April Dunford
How do we position a product that doesn't have any advantages over the alternatives? Let's start by entertaining the idea that maybe we're wrong about that.| Positioning with April Dunford
You shouldn't wait until disaster strikes to adjust your positioning, but when it does, that's a great time to revisit it.| aprildunford.substack.com
An acquisition – for both the acquiring company and the company that has been acquired – is a golden opportunity to revisit and tighten up positioning. Post-acquisition, the context of both the acquired and the acquirer often shifts. It makes sense that we would want to review the positioning to determine what might need to change. I will cover a set of common post-acquisition positioning scenarios and end this article with a few key additional things I think companies should consider.| aprildunford.substack.com
My favorite positioning quote is from Dolly Parton, who said, “Find out what you are and do it on purpose.” I think about this quote a lot (I used it in my book, Obviously Awesome, and I even made stickers). I think a great positioning exercise is a structured process that allows a team to get real clarity on exactly “what you are” so marketing and sales can “do it on purpose.”| aprildunford.substack.com
Consumer products rarely shift positioning, where positioning shifts are expected and normal for B2B products. As a result, some of the key concepts related to positioning consumer products are completely irrelevant for B2B products. In my book Sales Pitch, I discussed the differences between the ways consumer and business products are purchased. Most consumer products are low-stakes purchases, bought by an individual making a choice that hasn’t been deeply researched. Business purchases, o...| Positioning with April Dunford
One of the neat things about being a consultant is that I get to see patterns across dozens of companies that I didn’t see when I was an in-house exec. One pattern I have seen that holds companies back from nailing their positioning is what I call “overly pessimistic product thinking.” This is where the team has decided that their product is an undifferentiated loser despite all evidence to the contrary.| aprildunford.substack.com
Market Category is important, but it is not the core of our positioning. Many companies think that positioning starts with choosing a market category because they believe it’s the most important part. But they are wrong - let me explain.| aprildunford.substack.com
This week, I wanted to expand on a topic I covered on my podcast a few weeks back: what is your company’s point of view, and how do we communicate that?| aprildunford.substack.com