Obviously Awesome: How to Nail Product Positioning so Customers Get It, Buy It, Love It

by April Dunford

You need proof points that show there is a clear gap in value between the general-purpose solution offered by the market leader and your more-purpose-built solution.

Ideally your competitive advantage is something that is difficult for the market leader to copy, either because you own the intellectual property, or (more commonly) because trying to match your functionality might cause them damage in the broader market where they are winning.

Our investment banking clients didn’t want their competitors knowing they used our solution, so as not to give them the upper hand, and they refused to let us reference them by name in our marketing materials.

Also, be aware that the leaders of existing categories may claim that your new product is merely a feature or subset of their existing solutions.

This style is the most difficult because it involves dramatically shifting the way customers think, and shifting customer thinking takes a very strong, consistent, long-term effort.

Because of the investment and time required, this style is generally best used by more established companies with massive resources to put toward educating the market and establishing a leadership position.

For smaller companies, this style generally requires the participation of deep-pocketed, patient investors.

At the exact moment when prospects start to show signs of understanding the category, a larger competitor or a well-funded fast follower swoops in to take advantage of their category-creation work and steal leadership from them.

Another way that using trends can get you in trouble is if you focus on the trends and the market, but don’t show the link to your actual solution. One example of this is companies that get a little carried away with blogging and other forms of content creation—they are so busy writing content to attract readers that they forget there is an actual solution their company sells. While the trend might be fun to read about, it doesn’t help to sell any product.

proving that trying to capitalize on hype without linking it to your product is a dangerous game.

recommend capturing your positioning in a document with enough detail that it can be used by marketing, sales and product creation. This document should break down each individual component of the position, give enough detail for each to be understood and show how they interact with one another.

You can think of this as more of an exercise where you define the components of a sales story that will later be worked into an actual presentation for the sales team to use.

write a messaging document.