#37 - Grow Sales and Margins Through Positioning, with April Dunford

10/10/18 • 38 min

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

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#36 - Wisdom from a Millennial Leader, with Brian Wong

Entrepreneurs today can get a lot of inspiration from reading books by people like Dale Carnegie, Barbara Corcoran, Guy Kawasaki, Richard Branson—people who achieved exceptional things over the course of their lives. But for the generation now at the start of their careers, few figures could be as interesting as Brian Wong. At 27, has has already pioneered a category-defining rewards network that’s redefining mobile advertising. And he has amassed a level of savvy far beyond his years. In this episode, Brian shares some of the insights he’s gathered and lessons he’s learned as a rising business leader and innovator. Guest - Brian Wong, co-founder and CEO of Kiip Author of The Cheat Code, Brian Wong’s talent has been recognized in Business Insider’s Top 25 Under 25 in Silicon Valley, 30 Under 30 in Advertising, Forbes’ 30 under 30 three times, and Mashable’s Top 5 Entrepreneurs to Watch, to name a few. He has also been called the youngest person ever to receive venture capital funding by CNBC and The Wall Street Journal. He received his Bachelor of Commerce from the University of British Columbia at age 18 and co-founded Kiip the following year. Kiip is a mobile rewards network that leverages “moments of achievement” in games and apps to simultaneously benefit users, developers and advertisers. Backed by American Express, Interpublic Group, Verizon Ventures, and others, the company has raised $15.4 million in funding to date. Kiip has earned a place in Forbes’ 4 Hot Online Ad Companies to Watch, Fast Company's 50 Most Innovative Companies in the World, and the Dow Jones FasTech50 List. Host: Alex Langshur

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#38 - Are You Leaving Money on the Table? with Robin Waite

The conversation about pricing can be a dicey one. Not only because what businesses charge is proprietary, but also because methods of pricing can vary quite a bit. Some have buttoned down processes that track expenses, calculate hourly rates, and arrive at a margin. Others go mainly on instinct or observations of what other companies are doing. But if marketers avoid looking closely at their pricing, do they run the risk of losing money? What are the gains of pricing more strategically? Pricing really comes down to two things: 1) What’s your value to your clients, and 2) How do you communicate that value? To answer these questions, it can be very helpful to get an outsider’s perspective. Our guest today is business coach Robin Waite. Robin has helped improve pricing structure, leverage value, and grow the bottom line for many businesses. Guest - Robin Waite, Business Coach From 2004 to 2014, Robin Waite ran a design and advertising agency that served more than 250 clients. During that time, he began delivering workshops and classes that helped more than 1,000 business owners improve their marketing, product architecture, pricing, websites and digital advertising. As a business coach, Robin combines creativity with logical, analytical and objective thinking to help entrepreneurs become more successful. His best-selling books are Take Your Shot: How to Grow Your Business, Attract More Clients, and Make More Money and Online Business Startup: The Entrepreneur's Guide to Launching a Fast, Lean and Profitable Online Venture. When not coaching or writing, Robin loves nothing more than spending time with his wife and two young daughters. Host: Alex Langshur