April Dunford is a positioning consultant who has worked with more than 200 companies and is the author of Obviously Awesome and Sales Pitch. — April Dunford — About.

Infographic for "Lessons from April Dunford".

Core Principles of Positioning

  1. Positioning as Context-Setting: Positioning gives a product the context buyers need to interpret its details, much like an opening scene orients an audience. — April Dunford — An Introduction to Positioning.
  2. The Goal of Positioning: Positioning defines the market a product intends to win, the value it leads on, and the customers who care most about that value. — April Dunford — An Introduction to Positioning
  3. Positioning is a Business Strategy: A positioning change alters the competitive frame, expected capabilities, target buyer, and price assumptions, making it closer to a strategic choice than a messaging tweak. — April Dunford — An Introduction to Positioning.
  4. Deliberate vs. Default Positioning: Products can usually be positioned in several plausible markets, so teams should choose deliberately instead of inheriting the category implied by the original idea. — April Dunford — An Introduction to Positioning.
  5. Positioning and Messaging are Different: Positioning is an input to messaging: first decide the market, differentiated value, and best-fit customer, then translate those choices into communication. — April Dunford — A Product Positioning Exercise.
  6. On A market point of view: During market uncertainty, give buyers a clear view of where the market is heading and the path from today to that future. — April Dunford — Positioning in the Age of AI

Understanding Your Customer and Competitors

  1. Focus on Your Best-Fit Customers: Begin with customers who understood the product quickly, bought it, and realized meaningful value; their patterns provide the clearest positioning signal. — April Dunford — A Quickstart Guide to Positioning.
  2. The Litmus Test for Happy Customers: Best-fit customers experience the product differently from indifferent customers, so study the people who obtained unusually strong value rather than averaging every account. — April Dunford — A Quickstart Guide to Positioning
  3. Understanding True Competitive Alternatives: Define competition from the buyer’s perspective by asking what a best-fit customer would use if the product did not exist. — April Dunford — A Quickstart Guide to Positioning.
  4. Competitors Aren't Just Direct Rivals: Competitive alternatives include direct products, spreadsheets, manual processes, hiring someone, or doing nothing. — April Dunford — A Quickstart Guide to Positioning.
  5. On Real versus future competitors: Position against alternatives that appear on buyers’ shortlists now, while using the roadmap to prepare for credible future competitors. — April Dunford — Positioning in the Age of AI

The 5 Components of Effective Positioning

Treat positioning as five connected choices: competitive alternatives, differentiated capabilities, customer value, target segment, and market category. — April Dunford — An Introduction to Positioning.

  1. Competitive Alternatives: Competitive alternatives are what customers would use to solve the problem if the product were unavailable. — April Dunford — An Introduction to Positioning
  2. Unique Attributes: Differentiated capabilities are the attributes the product has that the alternatives cannot match. — April Dunford — A Quickstart Guide to Positioning
  3. Value (and Proof): Translate differentiated capabilities into customer value and attach proof, because buyers care about outcomes rather than features in isolation. — April Dunford — A Quickstart Guide to Positioning
  4. Target Customer Segmentation: The target segment is the group of customers that cares most about the differentiated value. — April Dunford — An Introduction to Positioning
  5. Market Category: The market category is the frame of reference that helps target customers understand the product and its expected value. — April Dunford — An Introduction to Positioning

Crafting Your Positioning

  1. Start with Competitive Alternatives: Start the positioning process with the alternatives the product must beat in order to win a deal. — April Dunford — A Quickstart Guide to Positioning
  2. From Features to Value: Map differentiated features to the value they enable instead of expecting buyers to infer why the features matter. — April Dunford — A Quickstart Guide to Positioning
  3. Find Who Cares—A Lot: After identifying differentiated value, focus on the customer segment that cares about it most. — April Dunford — A Quickstart Guide to Positioning
  4. Choosing Your Market Category Wisely: Choose a market category whose existing assumptions clarify the product’s competitors, capabilities, buyers, and price rather than creating confusion. — April Dunford — An Introduction to Positioning.
  5. On Distinguishing a point of view from product vision: A market point of view describes what good solutions will look like and informs the roadmap; it should not substitute an unfinished future product for present value. — April Dunford — In the Age of AI, You Need a Point of View

Common Positioning Pitfalls

  1. The Flaw of Positioning Statements: A fill-in-the-blank positioning statement is a poor discovery tool because it assumes the team already knows the right market, value, competitors, and customer. — April Dunford — An Introduction to Positioning
  2. Sticking to Your Original Idea: Do not remain anchored to the product’s original concept after customer use and the market reveal a stronger frame of reference. — April Dunford — A Quickstart Guide to Positioning
  3. Ignoring Market Shifts: Revisit positioning when technology, buyer priorities, and competition shift, because previously differentiated claims can become table stakes. — April Dunford — Positioning in the Age of AI
  4. Positioning Against Competitors Customers Don't Know: Positioning against competitors that buyers do not actually consider weakens the story and distracts from the real decision. — April Dunford — A Quickstart Guide to Positioning
  5. Confusing Boring with Baffling: Prefer a familiar category that buyers understand over a novel label that leaves them unable to place the product. — April Dunford — An Introduction to Positioning.
  6. On Adapting positioning during technology shifts: During a technology shift, keep close contact with customers because different segments change their attitudes and buying behavior at different speeds. — April Dunford — Positioning in the Age of AI

Advanced Positioning Strategies

  1. Head to Head: Use head-to-head positioning when the product can credibly win inside an established market. — April Dunford — A Quickstart Guide to Positioning
  2. Big Fish, Small Pond: Use a big-fish-small-pond strategy when the product is strongest for a specific subsegment of an established market. — April Dunford — A Quickstart Guide to Positioning
  3. Create a New Game: Create a new category only when existing categories cannot make the product’s value understandable and the team is prepared to educate the market. — April Dunford — A Quickstart Guide to Positioning
  4. Layering on a Trend (Carefully): Use a relevant trend to make established value feel urgent, but do not force a fashionable theme onto a product it does not strengthen. — April Dunford — A Quickstart Guide to Positioning.
  5. Marketing Jiu-Jitsu: A competitor’s apparent strength can become a weakness for a different customer segment; frame the trade-off around the value your best-fit customer cares about. — Positioning with April Dunford — How to Turn a Competitor's Strength into a Weakness
  6. On Grounding a point of view in strengths: Ground a future market narrative in capabilities the company can genuinely deliver better than other vendors. — April Dunford — In the Age of AI, You Need a Point of View
  7. On Linking future promise to present value: During upheaval, describe the future honestly while connecting it to value a customer can buy and realize today. — April Dunford — Positioning in the Age of AI

Quotes on Sales and Growth

  1. The Impact of Weak Positioning on Sales: Long sales cycles and weak conversion can indicate that buyers do not understand the product’s differentiated value or market context. — April Dunford — About
  2. Win Analysis is Crucial: Study wins as well as losses; patterns in why customers chose the product can provide an early warning that market positioning is changing. — April Dunford — Positioning in the Age of AI
  3. The No-Decision Loss: A no-decision outcome often means the buyer could not see enough differentiated value or felt too much commitment risk to change from the status quo. — Conquête — April Dunford Interview
  4. Positioning and Pricing Power: Focus on prospects that strongly value the product’s differentiated capabilities; best-fit customers tend to buy faster and are less likely to demand discounts. — April Dunford — A Product Positioning Exercise
  5. On Treating price objections as risk signals: When a buyer calls the price too high, test whether commitment risk is the real barrier and consider a phased engagement before discounting. — Conquête — April Dunford Interview
  6. Separate Customer and Investor Positioning: Investors evaluate a long-term company bet, while customers evaluate whether today’s product solves an immediate problem; do not reuse investor language as the sales story. — Conquête — April Dunford Interview
  7. Guide Buyers Through Trade-offs: Help buyers compare the trade-offs between approaches and give them a direct recommendation; confidence in the decision can matter as much as demonstrating value. — April Dunford — A Buyer-Centric Approach to Competitive Positioning
  8. Positioning Cannot Rescue an Undifferentiated Product: If a product delivers no differentiated value to any customer, positioning alone cannot fix it; the company must change the product, pricing, distribution, partnerships, or services first. — April Dunford — The No Differentiation Illusion

Actionable Learnings and Advice

  1. Keep Positioning Loose Initially: Keep early positioning loose until patterns emerge in who loves the product and why, then tighten the focus around those best-fit customers. — How to Web — Interview with April Dunford
  2. Form a Positioning Team: Build positioning with a cross-functional team so customer, product, sales, and marketing knowledge inform the choices. — April Dunford — A Quickstart Guide to Positioning
  3. Let Go of Your Baggage: Align the team on shared definitions and set aside inherited assumptions before evaluating alternative positions. — April Dunford — A Quickstart Guide to Positioning
  4. Capture and Share Your Positioning: Document the positioning choices and translate them into a narrative that sales and marketing can use consistently. — April Dunford — A Product Positioning Exercise
  5. Positioning is Not a One-Time Event: Treat positioning as a deliberate practice that should be tested and revisited rather than a one-time statement. — April Dunford — A Quickstart Guide to Positioning
  6. On Turning positioning into a sales conversation: Turn positioning into a first-call story that establishes the competitive context, differentiated value, and reason for the buyer to continue. — Data Faces — April Dunford Transcript

Learn more:

  1. An Introduction to Positioning - April Dunford
  2. A Quickstart Guide to Positioning - April Dunford
  3. A Product Positioning Exercise - April Dunford
  4. 5 Questions with April Dunford (author and product positioning expert) - Part 2 - How to Web