Positioning for tech companies. Author of the best-selling books Obviously Awesome and Sales Pitch.

April Dunford is the world's foremost authority on product positioning for B2B technology companies. As a consultant, April helps companies make complex products easy to understand and love. After a 25-year career as a VP of Marketing at various fast-growing technology firms, she has consulted with 300 technology companies, including Google, Epic Games, Postman, and others. April is the acclaimed author of the best-selling book, "Obviously Awesome," which delves into the art of positioning, and the newly released, "Sales Pitch," which unveils the secrets to crafting a winning sales narrative in the market.

April Dunford

ANNOUNCEMENT - The new updated and expanded Obviously Awesome is coming!!! 🎉 🎉 

I've been sitting on this one for a while, so I'm SUPER EXCITED to get this out into the world!! 

Almost 7 years ago, I published Obviously Awesome, my attempt at describing the process I use to position B2B tech products and companies. I didn't expect many people to read it. I was wrong. 

Since then, more than 100,000 people have bought the book, and countless companies have used the process. A few hundred did that with me directly, and many, many more of you worked through the process on your own using the book. I've learned a LOT over the past 7 years, and I decided it was time to bring those learnings back to the book. 

The new edition is coming in FEBRUARY (don't ask me for a specific date - it's Amazon's world, we're just living in it). Here's what's new:

📙 5 STEPS (not 10) - In the first edition, I describe 5 components of positioning and a 10-step process for doing it. Some of you really hated that the number of steps in the process wasn’t equal to the number of components. The first few steps were pre-work, and the final steps are work that follows the exercise. I have repositioned those steps (see what I did there), and we now have 5 components and 5 steps. 

📙 The PRE-WORK section has been expanded to include key decisions a team should make before beginning a positioning exercise. This is based on my work with clients, and I think it will greatly improve any team’s chances of success when following this process.

📙 I have included sections that are more relevant to MULTIPRODUCT companies grappling with how to position their products in a company with multiple offerings. 

📙 Some steps in the process have been significantly expanded—particularly the Differentiated Value step. Most teams told me they got stuck there. I hope this new, improved section helps to clarify the concept.

📙 The final section, What Happens AFTER a Positioning Exercise, has been greatly expanded. This new section reflects my current thinking on how best to create a sales pitch to test positioning and then turn that positioning into messaging.

📙 For the first time, there will be a HARDCOVER edition. Most of you won't care, but I have seen some seriously well-loved (but also beat-up and scraggly) paperbacks at conferences, and I decided some of you need a copy that’s a little more durable!

🎙️ To go with the book, I'm reviving the Positioning PODCAST and will release a new series of episodes that dive into the book's new material. 
✍ The same goes for the NEWSLETTER (always the best way to follow my stuff). 

A new podcast episode and newsletter article drop TOMORROW - links in the comments.

Lorenzo C.

CRO & Growth for DTC brands | ex-CXL

I use code and AI to build systems, automations and apps that solve problems for marketing and sales teams.

CRO, User Research and Experimentation Consultant

Quit my full-time job at Speero (previously CXL Agency) in Oct 2020. Spent 3 months reading a lot of books and relaxing. Finally started my own CRO consulting business in Jan 2021.

Is anybody building a Claude Code based marketing agency?

For example a Claude Code SEO agency.

This is what it would look like:

- IDE (Cursor, Antigravity, etc) + Claude Code as the UI of work

- Automated outbound system using Clay + Instantly (or their own copycat solution)

- Custom slash commands for text creation output (email to clients, research, etc)

- Claude Skills for all the service delivery tasks (keyword research, link building outreach, technical SEO, etc)

- MCPs to connect to existing service APIs (aHrefs, Screaming Frog, Moz, Clickup, etc)

- Multiple instances of Claude Code running in parallel for each client

- Custom project management tool to orchestrate tasks to Claude Code (or Agent SDK)

- Own custom apps that Skills / MCPs can use

- Cron-jobs to deliver reports / updates to clients

- Human in the loop review and validation system for AI work.

1 SEO Claude Code native expert could probably manage 20-30 clients with this setup.Basically a service based business with AI & SaaS behind it.

If you are considering it, DM me, we should chat.

I'm a visual person.

Probably I'm not the only one.

So when the Anthropic team has a new release in text format, I very often struggle understanding what it does, how it works and how I can use it.

Especially if I'm not under the influence of a coffee.

These guys are shipping like madmen, so I always want to be up to date on new feature releases.

So now I've created a new Claude Skill that does the following:

I feed the Github Change Log link (where Anthropic publishes new feature release communications) to Claude.

Claude creates an app (using artifact Skills) where for each new Claude Code feature:

1️⃣ It sets the context about the feature

2️⃣ It explains what it does in simple and clear terms

3️⃣ It shows me step by step on how it works and how I can use it

4️⃣ It has a chat with each feature window in case I have follow up questions (like ChatGPT chat UI).

The cool thing is that Anthropic injected in Claude's system prompt to always look up its own documentation when the user asks for a question about itself.

So it has the context.

Now I can finally always understand what each feature does and how to use it!

Next step is to automate it, so every time the Github Changelog page changes I get notified via Telegram and I can see the artifact instantly.

If there's enough interest I'll include you in the automation.

taplio

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taplio

The Battle

April Dunford

Lorenzo C.

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Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}April Dunford's LinkedIn Performance

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