April Dunford: The Marketing Expert
Guest April Dunford, an expert in product positioning and former IBM executive, discusses how strategic positioning, not just marketing, transforms a product's trajectory. She emphasizes defining market context, identifying underserved segments, and understanding B2B buyer psychology to achieve market leadership.
Deep Dive Analysis
17 Topic Outline
Defining Product Positioning and Its Core Purpose
The Muffin Analogy: Context Setting for Products
Common Misconceptions and the Evolution of Positioning
Strategic Positioning: Competing Against Market Leaders
B2B vs. B2C Positioning: Understanding Value and Risk
Case Study: When Product Repositioning Failed
Identifying Customer Pain Points and Value Proposition
Crafting Effective Sales Page Positioning
Technology's Impact on Positioning Fundamentals
Evaluating Product Positioning Effectiveness
The Cross-Functional Nature of Positioning Ownership
The Role of Storytelling in B2B Sales
Importance of a Company's Point of View on the Market
Dealing with Influencers and Gatekeepers in B2B
Common Mistakes in Product Positioning
What Marketing Schools Get Wrong About B2B
Understanding B2B Decision-Making and Customer Indecision
5 Key Concepts
Product Positioning
Positioning defines how a product is the best in the world at delivering specific value to a well-defined set of customers. It acts as context setting, helping customers understand what a product is, what it's about, and why they should care, serving as the foundation for all marketing and sales efforts.
Differentiated Value
This refers to the unique value a product can deliver for a customer that no one else can. Great positioning highlights this unique value and places it in a context that customers can easily understand and appreciate, distinguishing it from competitive alternatives.
Customer Indecision (B2B)
In B2B purchasing, customer indecision is a significant competitor, where 40-60% of purchase processes end with no decision. This often occurs because buyers struggle to confidently choose among similar options without fear of making a poor choice, leading them to defer or abandon the purchase.
Point of View on the Market
This is a company's unique perspective on a problem or market, different from competitors. By articulating this distinct viewpoint, companies can guide customers to understand the problem in a new way, leading them to see the value and necessity of their specific solution.
Category Creation
This occurs when a company introduces a truly innovative product that addresses a problem customers didn't even know they had, thereby defining a new market. It involves establishing new vocabulary and helping customers understand the boundaries and importance of this emerging market category.
9 Questions Answered
Product positioning is the strategic foundation that defines how a product is uniquely the best at delivering value to specific customers, acting as context setting. It's distinct from messaging (which communicates the positioning) and branding (which focuses on identity), as positioning is an input that shapes these outputs.
Startups can compete by finding and dominating an underserved subsegment of the market where the leader doesn't focus, then expanding from there. This allows them to be 'the best' in a smaller niche before gradually challenging the broader market.
B2B positioning focuses on value that helps businesses make or save money, often involving multiple stakeholders and driven by fear of making a poor choice. B2C value can be more diverse, including emotional or aspirational factors, with typically lower stakes for individual purchases.
Companies should engage in customer discovery, interviewing potential customers to validate assumptions about market needs and willingness to pay. This helps ensure the product solves a genuine, widespread problem that customers are willing to pay for.
The most common sign is customer confusion during early sales interactions, where prospects struggle to understand what the product is, what bucket to put it in, or why it's different/better than existing alternatives, often asking the sales rep to 'go back to the beginning'.
Positioning should be a cross-functional effort involving product, marketing, sales, customer success, and support, with CEO involvement. While marketing often stewards the positioning and messaging, the strategic decisions require alignment from all key departments to be effective and stick.
Effective B2B storytelling helps customers understand how to confidently make a decision by painting a clear picture of the entire market, including alternative approaches and competitors. It educates customers on what's important in a purchase decision and helps them understand the trade-offs involved, rather than just promoting the product.
Having a strong point of view on the market is crucial because it communicates a unique perspective on a problem, guiding customers to understand it in a new way. If customers align with this perspective, they are more likely to see the value in and choose the company's product.
A common mistake is attempting to create a new category when the product clearly fits into an existing market, leading to customer confusion. This 'wishful thinking' makes it harder for customers to understand the product's value and differentiate it from current solutions, hindering sales.
40 Actionable Insights
1. Define Unique Product Positioning
Define your product’s positioning by articulating how it uniquely delivers value. Focus on being the best at something specific for a particular customer segment.
2. Deliberately Define Product Positioning
Deliberately define your product’s positioning rather than assuming it’s obvious. Always consider your product within the competitive landscape, avoiding isolation.
3. Dominate Underserved Market Subsegments
For tech companies, identify and dominate an underserved subsegment of the market. This strategy allows for initial success and provides a foundation for future expansion into broader markets.
4. Narrow Target Market for Advantage
Initially narrow your target market to a segment where you have a distinct advantage. This allows you to establish dominance before strategically expanding your reach.
5. Define Niche, Plan Market Expansion
Define your niche where you can be the absolute best, even if it’s a small market initially. Develop a clear expansion pathway to progressively larger markets.
6. Dominate Small Markets, Then Expand
Start by dominating a market segment too small for established leaders to notice. Gradually expand your market boundaries to challenge and eventually compete with larger incumbents.
7. Highlight Unique Differentiated Value
Identify your unique, differentiated value that no competitor offers. Frame this value within a context that is easily understandable and relevant to your target customers.
8. Structure Positioning: Alternatives, Differentiators, Value
To define positioning, first identify competitive alternatives. Then, articulate your differentiated capabilities and, crucially, explain the specific business value those unique features provide.
9. Explain Feature Benefits, Not Just Features
Avoid the mistake of only listing product features; instead, clearly explain the benefits and ‘why’ those features matter to the customer’s business. Help customers translate features into tangible value.
10. Answer “Why Pick Us?” Clearly
Frame your positioning to clearly answer “Why pick us over competitors?” Empathize with the buyer’s difficult decision-making process and differentiate your offering accordingly.
11. Integrate Competition into B2B Storytelling
When crafting B2B sales narratives, ensure your story explicitly addresses “why pick us over the other guys.” Traditional “hero’s journey” storytelling often omits this crucial competitive comparison.
12. Frame Product Within Market Landscape
Develop a sales story that positions your product within the broader market, clearly illustrating where you fit and how you compare to alternatives. This helps customers understand competitive differentiation.
13. Discuss Alternatives and Competitors
In sales conversations, discuss alternative solutions and competitors’ approaches, rather than solely focusing on your product. This educates the customer and highlights your unique advantages.
14. Empower Confident B2B Decision-Making
Structure B2B sales storytelling to empower customers to make confident decisions by outlining the entire market and the trade-offs associated with each solution, including your own.
15. Combat B2B Buyer Indecision
Be aware that B2B deals frequently end in “no decision” due to buyer indecision and fear. Your positioning and sales process must actively help customers confidently make a choice.
16. Mitigate B2B Buyer Fear
Acknowledge that fear of making a bad decision is a primary driver in B2B purchases. Position your product as the safe, justifiable choice to mitigate this fear for buyers.
17. Address Risk Against Market Leaders
When competing against market leaders, understand that choosing your product is perceived as risky. Emphasize unique advantages or niche suitability to justify the perceived risk.
18. Study B2B Customer Indecision
Study research on B2B customer indecision, such as “The Jolt Effect,” to understand its prevalence (40-60% of deals end in no decision). This knowledge should inform and shape your B2B sales and positioning strategies.
19. Address Multiple B2B Stakeholders
Recognize that B2B purchases involve multiple stakeholders (5-11 on average). Tailor your approach to address the diverse needs and concerns of each individual in the buying committee.
20. Tailor B2B Messaging to Specialists
Tailor B2B communication to specialized buyers. Do not “dumb down” messaging for a general audience, as it only needs to resonate with the specific target customer.
21. Set Product Context with Positioning
Use positioning to establish immediate context for your product. This helps customers quickly understand what the product is, its purpose, and why it’s relevant to them, serving as a conversation starter.
22. Achieve Clarity in Crowded Markets
To stand out in a crowded market, communicate your product’s essence, value, target audience, and differentiation with extreme clarity and succinctness. This helps break through the constant noise.
23. Articulate Unique Market Point of View
Develop and articulate a distinct point of view on the market and the problem you solve. Guide customers to understand the problem from your unique perspective, leading them to see your product as the optimal solution.
24. Define Vocabulary for Emerging Markets
For truly innovative or emerging products, actively define the market category and its vocabulary. Coin terms for the category and key concepts to shape customer understanding and gain a competitive advantage.
25. Cultivate Problem Awareness in Emerging Markets
In emerging markets, educate customers to become aware of problems they didn’t realize they had. Once problem awareness is established, present your product as the solution.
26. Educate Key Customer Influencers
Identify key influencers and advisory bodies (e.g., Gartner, Deloitte, podcasters) that your target customers consult. Invest in educating these influencers to ensure they understand and position your product favorably.
27. Adopt Cross-Functional Positioning Strategy
Establish positioning as a cross-functional team effort, involving product, marketing, sales, customer success, and support. This ensures alignment and incorporates diverse customer insights for a robust strategy.
28. Appoint Marketing as Positioning Steward
Designate marketing as the steward of established positioning to ensure consistent application across all sales and marketing communications. This maintains alignment post-decision.
29. Monitor Market, Re-evaluate Positioning
Assign a person or team to monitor market changes and advocate for re-evaluating positioning when necessary. This ensures your strategy remains relevant and effective over time.
30. Balance Long-Term Vision, Short-Term Dominance
When fundraising, articulate a long-term vision for market expansion and revenue growth. For immediate business goals, focus on being the best in a small, specific area to secure initial deals.
31. Prioritize Customer Discovery
Conduct thorough customer discovery by interviewing potential customers to validate market assumptions before product development. This helps ensure you’re building something people will pay for.
32. Recognize Sales Pitch Confusion
If customers frequently ask to “go back to the beginning” or appear confused during sales pitches, it indicates weak positioning. This signals a need to clarify your product’s fundamental context and value.
33. Correct Misguided Customer Comparisons
A sign of weak positioning is when customers incorrectly categorize your product or compare it to irrelevant competitors. This requires re-framing your product’s context to guide accurate comparisons.
34. Address Perceived Lack of Value
If prospects understand your product and competitors but question its value or why they should pay for it, your positioning fails to convey sufficient benefit. Re-emphasize the unique value proposition.
35. Avoid Superficial Positioning Changes
Do not treat positioning as a superficial marketing exercise involving just new words. Ensure positioning is deeply understood and integrated across sales and product teams to reflect the true value of the product.
36. Avoid Unnecessary Category Creation
Avoid attempting category creation if your product clearly fits an existing market category. Forcing a new category can confuse customers and make selling more difficult than leveraging an established, albeit niche, position.
37. Sell Prevention, Not Features
When selling products that prevent negative outcomes (e.g., cybersecurity), focus your sales pitch on the benefit of prevention rather than technical features. Emphasize how your product ensures the customer avoids undesirable consequences.
38. Learn B2B Marketing Hands-On
Recognize that effective B2B marketing skills are primarily learned through hands-on experience within companies. Practical application and on-the-ground learning are crucial for success.
39. Focus on Strengths, Avoid Weaknesses
Structure your career and life to focus on your strengths and what you excel at, minimizing time spent on weaknesses or undesirable tasks. This approach leads to greater satisfaction and impact.
40. Measure Prospect Comprehension Speed
Assess your positioning by measuring how quickly new prospects grasp your product’s purpose, differentiation, and value. Good positioning leads to rapid understanding and “aha!” moments.
7 Key Quotes
Positioning defines how your product is the best in the world at delivering something, some value that a well-defined set of customers cares a lot about.
April Dunford
Product positioning is basically shaping the environment in the consumer's mind by which they draw comparisons and know what to expect.
Shane Parrish
The most common way that tech companies successfully position is they find an underserved subsegment of the market. And then they attempt to dominate that subsegment and then push out from there.
April Dunford
In B2B, the granddaddy of emotions is fear. Fear of making a poor choice. Fear of looking bad in front of my boss. Fear of getting fired. Like fear of making a mistake drives a lot of decisions in B2B.
April Dunford
The biggest mistake I see technology companies making is they're so certain that their features are valuable and people will just understand what the value of those features are. They're talking about the features, but they're not talking about why the features matter.
April Dunford
What makes a great photograph is knowing where to stand.
Shane Parrish
How do you beat Bobby Fisher? You play him at any game but chess.
April Dunford