A Field Guide for Product Marketing Managers Tired of Cosmetic Strategy

Why most internal positioning work fails, and how PMMs can lead with clarity, not decoration.

I. Who This Is For

This guide is for Product Marketing Managers in B2B SaaS who are tired of being treated like internal copywriters while being held accountable for strategic clarity. You’re asked to fix “positioning” but handed a Google Doc with bullet points. You’re told to unify product, sales, and marketing but given no authority, budget, or framework.

This isn’t a how-to on messaging. It’s a handbook for PMMs ready to lead positioning as organizational design, not corporate storytelling.

II. Why This Guide Exists

Most “positioning” work is cosmetic. It lives in taglines, homepages, value props, pitch decks. It looks like clarity but feels hollow. Why? Because the company has never actually decided what it is.

Meanwhile, PMMs are stuck mediating internal debates with no structure, no decision rights, and no strategic lens.

If you’ve tried April Dunford’s five-step method or Fletch PMM’s canvas and still found yourself in circular alignment meetings, here’s the truth:

These tools live in marketing. Positioning lives in the business.

This guide rejects messaging-led frameworks and gives you the structure to lead real positioning conversations that touch strategy, not just copy.

III. The Real Challenge: Misalignment, Not Messaging

According to Miller Heiman Group, only 19% of organizations achieve true go-to-market alignment. The rest operate in strategic fog. PMMs feel it first: you’re asked to produce clarity without having it.

The State of Product Marketing Report 2024 shows:

• 66.3% of PMMs say they have leadership support
• 35.6% lack a dedicated positioning budget
• PMMs must align with 88.8% of product teams and 81% of marketing, while holding no decision-making power

This is the positioning paradox:

• You are responsible for strategic clarity
• But you’re not authorized to decide what the company is

Which is why 90% of effective positioning is internal alignment, not external messaging. That number isn’t from a single study; it’s what emerges when you trace every failed GTM motion back to its root cause: no agreed-upon definition of the business.

IV. Most Internal Positioning Conversations Fail. Here’s Why.

1. They confuse positioning with messaging
   Taglines ≠ Positioning. Homepages ≠ Strategy.
2. They operate by committee
   “Let’s get everyone’s input” quickly turns into consensus-led mush.
3. They avoid tradeoffs
   Everyone wants positioning to include their feature, audience, or priority. No one wants to cut.
4. They assume internal opinions = market truths
   Sales anecdotes become positioning inputs. Product roadmap becomes narrative.
5. They use marketing frameworks to solve strategic problems
   Positioning statements without pricing alignment, product tradeoffs, or operational backing = vapor.

V. Why Mainstream Frameworks Aren’t Enough

April Dunford’s “Obviously Awesome”:

Good at naming the components of positioning. Weak at creating organizational coherence. Treats positioning as something PMM builds and hands off.

No treatment of tradeoffs, operating models, or cost structures. It’s messaging in disguise.

Fletch PMM:

Helpful for PMMs looking for quick diagnostics. But again, it lives in the world of messaging clarity, not positioning defensibility.

Their canvas doesn’t force business model alignment or ownership of a mental territory.

If your “position” can be changed in a slide deck, it’s not positioning. It’s surface tension.

VI. What Actually Works: The 4-Level Positioning Canvas

Positioning is not what you say. It’s what you prove — operationally, strategically, and repeatedly.

Here’s the only lens that forces that rigor:

Level	Definition	What It Reveals	Copyability	Cost to Fake
1	Saying It	Taglines, mission statements, positioning docs	Easy	Low
2	Proving It	Case studies, metrics, social proof	Somewhat difficult	Medium
3	Being It	Strategic sacrifices, pricing moves, product constraints	Hard	High
4	Owning It	Business model built around a single mental territory	Nearly impossible	Existential

The best PMMs don’t try to fix Level 1. They surface Level 3 and 4 gaps.

VII. How to Lead the Positioning Conversation (Without Authority)

Step 1: Stop Fixing What’s Not Defined

Refuse to update the messaging before the business agrees on what it is.

Ask:

• What concept do we own that no one else can claim without breaking themselves?
• What would we stop doing if we took our positioning seriously?
• What’s the one word that explains what we are to the market?

Don’t be the person who polishes confusion.

Step 2: Run a Positioning Audit Using the 4-Level Framework

Facilitate a cross-functional session and ask:

• Level 1: What are we currently saying?
• Level 2: What backs it up?
• Level 3: What decisions cost us something to reinforce this?
• Level 4: What part of the business would break if we changed this?

If most of your “position” lives in Levels 1 and 2, you have messaging. Not strategy.

Step 3: Limit the Room. Define Decision Rights.

Use RASCI to limit sprawl:

• Recommends: PMM
• Approves: CEO or CPO
• Supports/Consults: Product, Sales, Marketing leads
• Informs: Rest of GTM org

Don’t run a brainstorm. Run a strategy session.

Keep the core positioning team to 4–5 people max.

VIII. Department-by-Department Objections to Prepare For

Team	Common Objection	How to Disarm It
Sales	“This isn’t how prospects talk”	Include top reps in development. Build battle cards, not docs.
Marketing	“Product keeps changing features”	Tie positioning to outcomes, not features.
Product	“That’s not what the product does”	Align around where the roadmap is going. Frame around value.
Leadership	“This narrows the market too much”	Show how narrow = defensible. Wide = vague.

IX. What PMMs Need to Do Next

You don’t need a better tagline.
You need to move your org from Level 2 to Level 4.

1. Use positioning audits to surface misalignment
2. Challenge the org to make strategic tradeoffs
3. Design your facilitation process with conviction, not consensus
4. Align product, sales, and leadership around one noun, not a paragraph

If it can be changed in a slide deck, it’s not positioning.
If your competitors can say it next week, you don’t own it.
If the business doesn’t live it, the market won’t believe it.

X. Finally

If your company changed nothing but its messaging, would the market even notice?

If the answer is no, then you don’t have a positioning problem.
You have a business clarity problem.

And PMM is the only function equipped to surface it.