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April Dunford: Five Steps to Position Your Product So It Actually Sells

By April Dunford · Startup Growth · 1 min read

Dunford says most companies start positioning by getting everyone together and asking 'why does everybody love our stuff?' That's a terrible way to do it.

Key Points

Start with competitive alternatives — what do you have to beat to win a deal
List your differentiated capabilities, then translate them into value themes
Define best-fit customers and pick a market category that makes your value obvious

I say competitive alternatives and people think competition. But in B2B, we lose about 40% of our deals to no decision — which means we lost to the spreadsheet.

Step 1: What Do You Have to Beat?

Dunford: The first step is to understand what you have to position against. What do I have to beat in order to win a deal? In positioning we call this competitive alternatives.

People mess this up because when I say competitive alternatives they think competition — things that look exactly like me. But in B2B we have two sets. Status quo — whatever the company is doing right now, even if it's crappy. And the short list — whoever else they're comparing you to.

Most folks will discount the status quo. They shouldn't. In B2B we lose about 40% of our deals to no decision — which actually means we lost to the spreadsheet, we lost to pen and paper, we lost to interns.

In B2B we lose about 40% of our deals to no decision. That means we lost to the spreadsheet.

Step 2: Differentiated Capabilities

Dunford: Once I have that stake in the ground, I can think about what makes us different. What have I got capabilities-wise that the alternatives don't have? Features, functions, or even capabilities of the company — pricing, professional services, other things.

I can make a giant list of these things.

Step 3: Translate to Value

Dunford: Then I translate that stuff into value. I go down the list and say — we have this great feature, so what? Why does a customer care? What value does it enable?

When I do that mapping, I generally end up with two or three value themes. And quite often those themes are different than what I would have gotten if I just asked the smart people in my company why everyone loves our stuff.

This way I'm ensured that those value themes are differentiated — not just things that are generally valuable but any alternative could deliver.

When I do the mapping, the value themes are often different than what I'd get from asking why everyone loves our stuff.

Step 4: Best-Fit Customers

Dunford: I could sell this product to any company that has this problem. But not everybody cares about this value the same way. What are the characteristics of a target account that make them really, really care a lot about that value?

If I do some deep thinking about that, that's going to be my definition of a really best-fit customer.

Step 5: Market Category

Dunford: The last piece is market category. A lot of people start with market category and try to back up, which I think is crazy — because then we don't have anything to judge whether it's good.

But if I've got the value only I can deliver, and the kind of people that really care about it, then the best market category is the context I position my product in such that this value is kind of obvious to those people.

A lot of people start with market category and try to back up, which I think is crazy.