608 - Story Lines, Positioning, and How To Differentiate Your Business with April Dunford

Today’s co-host is April Dunford, a positioning consultant and entrepreneur who literally wrote the book on positioning. She’s also an in-demand keynote speaker. While her book, Obviously Awesome, refers to products, most of it can be applied to services, as well — something April talks about in today’s show. She also shares how her loose position affected her trajectory when she first became a consultant.

If you’ve ever searched online for information about positioning your business, you know there is a ton of material available. But what’s often missing are the actionable items and exercises you need to work through in order to actually do it effectively. April noticed this gap in the market and created tools and processes to help businesses better position themselves.

April’s life has turned out to be more free-form than she ever though it would. She received her degree in systems design engineering and lucked into a job at a startup right out of school. She was eventually hired as a technology evangelist, where she learned that she was great at engaging with people and giving presentations. She points to that moment as a turning point in her career.

Currently, April can be found on her book tour and speaking at conferences (more than usual). She’s using the book events and publicity from the book as an interesting experiment in growing leads, since up to this point her business has been mostly referral-based.

In this episode, April and I dive into what makes some businesses fail and others succeed. We also discuss the principles and science behind positioning (like how people’s brains react to seeing something new).

In this episode April talks about:

• What positioning is, why it’s important in all aspects of marketing, and what she noticed was missing.
• The science of positioning and how you can use it to your advantage.
• Why it’s slightly harder to position services versus products.

Main Takeaways

• Positioning is the foundation of your marketing. A certain set of criteria pointed at a certain group of people about why you’re the best in the world is the building block for all of your marketing.
• Positioning is often a science based on groups of people and their given assumptions about certain markets. You can use people’s assumptions about these markets (competitors, costs, etc.) to differentiate yourself and give yourself an in.
• Product positioning is generally easier than services because the differences are more obvious. Figuring out how and why you’re different and which differences people really care about is the best strategy when positioning your service.

Important Mentions in this Episode

• April Dunford Website
• April on Twitter
• April on LinkedIn
• Obviously Awesome: How to Nail Product Positioning so Customers Get It, Buy It, Love It
• Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind