Published in HackerNoon.com·Sep 11, 2018Why You Should Not Let Customers Decide What Your Product IsI was recently asked to name the biggest product positioning mistake a startup could make. My answer was that most companies don’t position their products at all, at least not actively. Worse than that, they let customers position their products for them. Your product is positioned, even if you didn’t do it on purpose If a company does not deliberately position their…Startup5 min read
Published in HackerNoon.com·Apr 11, 2017Why your investor pitch is ruining your sales pitchOne by-product of having so many early stage incubators and accelerators in the startup ecosystem is that most young founders have done a lot of pitch training very early in the life of their companies. Maybe too much. Many founders I meet have completed more than one incubator program before…Startup6 min read
Published in HackerNoon.com·Feb 8, 2017Obviously Awesome: a product positioning exerciseScroll down for a template — but I recommend you read the post before you try to use it. I’ve been a marketing executive at a half dozen successful startups and I’ve been a consultant and advisor to dozens more. I’ve also worked with a handful of massive global companies…Startup14 min read
Published in ART + marketing·Oct 26, 2016How to transform your product by giving it contextNo product exists in isolation. Every offering is presented to potential customers within a context or a frame of reference, whether we set one deliberately or not. That context helps them understand what it is, who it is for and why they should care. A great product, presented within a…Marketing6 min read
Published in HackerNoon.com·Jul 6, 2016B2B SaaS: Evolving from founder selling to a sales teamFor SaaS companies with a somewhat complicated sales model (i.e. sales process that involves a person talking to a prospect in order to close a deal), the sales process should evolve as the company grows. The best way to move through this evolution is to relieve the congestion that naturally…Startup7 min read
Jun 28, 2016What the heck is your product really?I was one of the judges in a pitch contest last week (thanks for having me Innovate Manitoba) and listening to the pitches it struck me how for most products, the answer to the question, “What are you?” could be answered in multiple different ways. …Startup3 min read
May 18, 2016If you think positioning is a marketing exercise, you’re doing it wrongPositioning a product today is radically different from what it was when the concept was first introduced. Anyone who has read Ries and Trout’s “Positioning — the Battle for Your Mind”, would be understandably left thinking that Positioning is an exercise completed by the marketing department (or marketing agencies) for…Marketing5 min read
May 3, 2016How product framing can help grow your startup (or kill it)I frequently talk to startup founders with innovative products that struggle to explain why their offering is really exciting. I frequently think the problem is really one of improper context setting or framing as I like to call it. What’s framing and why should you care? Framing is the act of providing context to help prospects understand…Startup9 min read
Oct 13, 2015Everything You Know About Positioning is WrongPositioning as a concept has been around since 1969 when it was first introduced by Jack Trout. The idea became mainstream marketing knowledge after Ries and Trout published “Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind” in the early 80’s and marketers have been taught this style of positioning ever since. Ries…Marketing4 min read
Published in Marketing And Growth Hacking·Jun 23, 2015Components of a Startup Marketing PlanWhen I ask startup folk if they have a “Marketing Plan” I get a range of reactions from a slightly embarrassed “Yeah we probably should have one but we aren’t doing much marketing so…” through to the more assertive, “We don’t do plans, because we’re like, you know, a startup!” …Entrepreneurship6 min read