What Makes Great Companies Stand Out with April Dunford @ AmbientStrategy.com - Escape Velocity Show #9

Another episode of Escape Velocity, and another opportunity to level up your game as an entrepreneur! We are jumping right into a topic of major importance for your business – POSITIONING! Getting your positioning super tight and specific can be the holy grail of growth… and many of the major players in the SaaS space are proof of that! It all comes down to picking the low-hanging fruit… get to know your BEST CUSTOMERS – the ones who love your product, tell others about it and the sale will close fast…  That being said, what if that’s only 20-30% of your customers?!… Is it better to keep a loose positioning and get to as many customers as possible? The devil is in the details! On this episode of Escape Velocity (#9), I sit down with the amazingly charismatic and knowledgeable April Dunfordto talk about her journey as an entrepreneur, positioning expert and much more! Watch the full episode to learn how to identify your best customers and get your positioning just right. April is dropping knowledge non-stop during our talk! Here are some of the key topics:  - The story of Janna Systems (<- MUST HEAR)  - Keeping a loose positioning in the early days of a company - The marketing playbook - Generic vs. Specific approaches - Chasing trends in marketing - What separates great companies from the rest - How to hire a good marketing leader? - What makes great leaders in the SaaS space? - What is professional maturity? These days, the tech space is bombarded with hot new flavor of thе month strategies like Category Creation and it’s all too easy to follow the trends and commit your business to a marketing plan that is not necessarily the best option for your growth. I am not trying to throw shade on Category Creation here… it can be amazingly effective in the right situation. But as April points out in our conversation, this is mostly the case for established companies, with serious brand recognition and access to capital. Find what worked with your most successful past deals and established business relationships… look for the patterns that define your ideal partner. At that point, building a marketing plan becomes a piece of cake! Now you know what to look for… it’s time to commit. Do not underestimate how important it is to stick to your message… remember that you will get tired of your own marketing before your customers do! The big takeaway is… spend the necessary time and effort to get your basics right! Listen in on the whole conversation and learn how to make waves in the SaaS space through good positioning. Watch the full episode here for more insights and make sure to drop a comment if you have any questions about optimizing positioning and marketing strategy. -- Dan Martell has advised more startups than his hometown has people and teaches startup founders like you how to scale. He previously created, raised venture funding for and successfully exited two tech startups: Flowtown and Clarity.fm. You should follow him on twitter @danmartell for tweets that are actually awesome. + Instagram (behind the scenes): http://instagram.com/danmartell + Facebook (live trainings + Q&A): http://FB.com/DanMartell + Twitter (what I'm reading): http://twitter.com/danmartell