Whether we sell services, products or ideas, the first thing we need to do is find and understand our audience. Because no matter how effective we may be at communicating our value proposition and connecting to a need, we’re not going to see the results we want if we’re talking to the wrong people—or talking about our offering in the wrong way. Positioning is about defining your market and your relationship to it. So you can see why it’s a necessary process before effective marketing can happen. The challenge is taking a fresh, dispassionate, analytical look at your company, your service and your competition. In this week’s episode, we hear from April Dunford, a marketing and positioning maven who has launched many products into market and served as a senior executive at IBM, Huawei, Nortel and other firms. Today she travels the world, sharing her wisdom and passion about positioning. Guest - April Dunford, CEO Ambient Strategy As a consultant, April helps technology companies position their products for market—in other words, she makes them easier to understand and purchase by the customers most need them most. As an international keynote speaker and lecturer, she offers trainings on go-to-market strategy based on the methodologies she’s developed over 25 years as an executive in successful technology startups as well as global tech giants. In that time, she has positioned and launched 16 products and grown the revenue of the companies she’s served from zero to more than a billion. April is also a board member, angel investor and mentor to dozens of startups. The release of her book Obviously Awesome: How to Position Your Product so Customers Get it, Buy it, Love it is anticipated in early 2019. Host: Alex Langshur