#19 How to nail your product positioning | April Dunford, author of Obviously Awesome and Sales Pitch
Oct 19, 2024
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April Dunford, a globally renowned marketing expert and author of best-selling books like "Obviously Awesome," shares invaluable insights on product positioning. She discusses why companies often stumble in this area and emphasizes that positioning requires collaboration across teams. April outlines her step-by-step process for defining ideal customer profiles and highlights the common pitfalls to avoid. Additionally, she clarifies the distinctions between messaging, branding, and positioning, revealing how effective positioning translates to compelling sales pitches.
Effective product positioning requires collaboration across departments to ensure diverse insights and a comprehensive strategy.
Consistent user engagement is crucial for understanding customer needs, yet many teams struggle with recruitment for effective interviews.
Positioning is an evolving process that must adapt to market changes, requiring organizations to continuously reassess their strategies and methodologies.
Deep dives
The Importance of Cross-Functional Teams in Positioning
Using a cross-functional team to develop positioning is essential because different departments within a company tend to see the customer at various stages of their journey. Marketing, sales, product management, and customer success interact with customers in unique ways, leading to different perspectives on positioning. This lack of alignment can cause inconsistencies in identifying competitors and understanding how the company measures up against them. A collaborative approach ensures that diverse insights are considered, leading to a more comprehensive positioning strategy.
The Role of User Feedback in Product Development
Consistent engagement with users is vital for product teams to effectively understand customer needs, validate design concepts, and ensure the right product is being built. However, many teams struggle to allocate time for user interviews due to the complexities of recruiting the right participants. Solutions like UX Signals automate the recruitment of users, allowing teams to conduct interviews quickly and efficiently. This accessibility to real-time user feedback enhances the product development process by providing fresh insights that inform decisions.
Challenges in Positioning for Mature Companies
Many mature companies struggle with positioning because it is not a static or one-time exercise. Positioning must evolve with shifts in the product, marketplace, and customer needs, yet companies often rely on previous, possibly outdated strategies. This reliance can lead to a disconnect as market dynamics change, requiring them to reevaluate and update their positioning. Without a clear methodology in place, many organizations find themselves ill-equipped to make informed adjustments, ultimately leading to ineffective positioning.
Methodology for Effective Positioning
An effective positioning methodology involves several steps, starting with the formation of a cross-functional team to gain diverse perspectives. The process should begin with identifying competitive alternatives rather than jumping straight to value propositions. By focusing on factual insights from the sales team regarding actual competitors, teams can develop a clearer understanding of where they fit in the market. Once this is established, they can outline their unique value propositions and target ideal customer profiles based on the strengths their product offers.
Distinguishing Positioning, Messaging, and Branding
Positioning serves as the foundation for various marketing efforts, including messaging and branding, by providing essential insights about target audiences, competition, and value differentiation. Messaging adapts positioning to specific contexts, such as advertisements or sales pitches, while branding encompasses the overall tone and visual identity of a company. Clear distinctions between these concepts help organizations articulate their value more effectively across different channels. A lack of clarity can lead to ineffective communication strategies and misalignment of marketing initiatives.
My guest today is the globally renowned marketing expert April Dunford.
April has probably advised more B2B tech companies on positioning than anyone in the world.
April's book Obviously Awesome is one of the biggest best-selling marketing books out there - and I'm so happy we had time to dig into everything you need to know to nail Product Positioning so that customers get it, buy it, and love it.
Every founder, marketing, sales, and product person should listen to this episode!
We discussed:
* Why companies fail with positioning
* Why positioning is a team sport
* April's step-by-step process to nail product positioning
* How to find your ICP (ideal customer profile)
* Common pitfalls when defining positioning
* Messaging vs branding vs positioning
* How to align Product, Marketing, Sales, and Executive leadership on positioning and why it's important
* How to translate your positioning to a killing Sales pitch
