[Best of B2B] April Dunford - Positioning, Differentiation, Lessons from 200+ Sales Pitches, and How To Do It Right

#397 | One of our most popular episodes ever, inducted into our Best of B2B series: April Dunford is a B2B positioning expert and author of Obviously Awesome and Sales Pitch. Sales Pitch guides you through an eight-step sales pitch structure the helps you stand out and win business. Building on the concepts of the bestselling book, Obviously Awesome, Sales Pitch will give your sales reps a story that makes your product shine. We talk about her new book, lessons from her first book, and covered:

- Positioning vs. Category Creation vs. Strategic Narrative

- Lessons from 200+ B2B sales pitches

- Why differentiation is everything and how to do it

- Why positioning has to be a cross-functional activity - not just for the marketing

- A structure anyone can use to turn positioning into a strong sales pitch

- Why she set out to write a follow up book to her 2019 hit Obviously Awesome called Sales Pitch (and go through the pain of writing a book all over again)

Timestamps

(00:00) - Why timeless marketing lessons still matter

(01:21) - How April does positioning in one week

(07:22) - Why marketing never wins a battle of opinions

(08:38) - Who you really compete with