"Innovative, new products are difficult to understand and we have only seconds to help customers understand why they should care." According to April Dunford, author of the new book, Obviously Awesome: How to Nail Product Positioning so Customers Get It, Buy It, Love It, position is the way to do that. The way we look at this at Helping Sells Radio, positioning is a way to help customers discover that our product can uniquely help them solve a problem and/or achieve some outcome. Of course April says it much better that we can, and we had her on the show just to make sure.
Positioning has been around for as long as marketing has...which is to say, it is not hip and cool, like conversational marketing or customer success marketing. But. It is one of the most important things a company can do to help prospective customers find you. Here is the big time problem that April is on a mission to solve: almost no one deliberately positions their product, and that turns out to be a huge mistake because when companies do not deliberately position themselves, customers do that for you and lump you in to what they already know. Every time you are in a battle with a competitor. Customer customer keeps saying, "You're like [ insert competitor ] but you don't have this (or that) feature." And you keep saying, "But we're not like [ insert competitor ]. Really. We're not." Then, it's too late. The customer has positioned you. April's book is a call to action for anyone who wants to tell customers who they really are.
Position yourself or be positioned.
Learn more about April:
Her book: Obviously Awesome: How to Nail Product Positioning so Customers Get It, Buy It, Love It
April's website: https://aprildunford.com
On Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aprildunford/
On Twitter: https://twitter.com/aprildunford
The Medicine Talk Tweet: https://twitter.com/billcush/status/1103770476373925888
The Uber for Cats Tweet: https://twitter.com/billcush/status/1103775904461803520
We never position products deliberately: https://twitter.com/billcush/status/1103771010124247040
Positioning helps customers understand why they should care: https://twitter.com/billcush/status/1103771625214754816
116: April Dunford Wait! You're Positioning Yourself as Uber for Cats?