You’ve got product marketers doing “product positioning.”

If that alone doesn’t make you pause, let me expand.

Product Marketers ≠ Positioning Strategists

Let’s start with a simple fact:

Product marketers are 1P of the 4Ps of marketing.
Price. Product. Place. Promotion.

Most of them can’t even name all four, let alone use them in conversation with the CEO or CFO.

They live in product land.

Features, releases, sales enablement, and roadmap updates.

Useful stuff. Necessary, even.

But here’s the truth no one wants to say out loud:

If you can’t get in the room with the CEO and CFO, you are not setting business direction.

You’re not doing positioning.
You’re downstream.
You’re interpreting, not deciding.

Let’s calm down about who owns what.

Starting with What You Sell? You Already Lost

Here’s how it usually goes:

• Let’s start with the features.
• Map them to jobs-to-be-done and workflows.
• Translate those into benefits.
• Then stretch benefits into outcomes.
• Redo the homepage copy.
• And now we’ll call it “positioning.”

This is tactical framing.
Not positioning.

Why?

Because it starts with what you want to sell, not what they are trying to buy.

What’s the First Step of Real Positioning?

Ask this:

“What are people actually buying?”

Not what you’re shipping. Not what you wish they saw.
What they actually believe they’re buying.

That gap: the one between what they think they’re getting vs. what you’re trying to say, is where positioning lives.

Because people don’t buy workflows.
They don’t buy integrations.
They buy identity, meaning, and certainty.

Positioning Is Identity, Not Inventory

Positioning starts in the market’s mind, not the product manager’s.

It’s psychological, not mechanical.

And if you haven’t read Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind by Al Ries and Jack Trout, start there. That’s not a suggestion. That’s required reading.

Let’s make it real:

• Salesforce doesn’t sell CRM. It owns growth.
• HubSpot doesn’t sell automation. It owns inbound.
• Atlassian doesn’t sell tickets. It owns teamwork.
• Stripe doesn’t sell payments. It owns infrastructure.
• Gong doesn’t sell call recordings. It owns intelligence.

None of these brands started with what they built.
They started with what people wanted to believe.

Positioning Is a CEO Function.
Full Stop.

If positioning decides:

• What we are
• Who we serve
• How we win
• Where we invest
• What we ignore

…then it’s a business design decision, not a messaging one.

That means:

• CMO = may facilitate
• CPO = may support
• Product marketing = may translate

But the CEO owns it.

Because only the CEO can align culture, product, pricing, ops, and capital behind one position.

Signs You’ve Got a Positioning Dumpster Fire

• No one can agree on what the company is “really about”
• Sales keeps reinventing the story
• Product is building for ten personas
• Marketing is chasing trends
• Customers describe you in ways that feel… off
• Your own team can’t pitch you in 10 seconds

What to Do Instead (CEO Playbook)

Step 1: Ask the Hard Question

“What are people really buying when they buy from us?”

Let your team answer. No judging. Just listen.

Then ask again:

“What are we trying to sell?”

Find the gap. That’s where positioning work begins.

Step 2: Define Your One Word

What’s the noun you want to own in their mind?

Not “better.” Not “modern.” Not “intelligent.”
A noun.

Examples:

• Speed
• Trust
• Clarity
• Simplicity
• Control
• Power

Positioning is about owning a concept, not describing a feature.

Step 3: Test for Ownership

Ask ten customers:

“When you think of us, what’s the first word that comes to mind?”

If your word isn’t showing up unprompted, you don’t own it.
You’re renting it at best. Read this for context.

Step 4: Align Everything to the Word

Filter every part of the business:

• Product roadmap
• Customer support
• Pricing
• Brand tone
• Hiring

Ask: Does this reinforce the word we want to own?

If not: cut, fix, or realign.

Commonly Asked Questions by Product Marketers

“But what if a competitor copies our position?”

Competitors can mimic messaging, but positioning isn’t messaging.

Positioning involves expensive, strategic, irreversible decisions:

• Amazon owns convenience through massive infrastructure.
• Tesla owns the future through relentless innovation.
• Patagonia owns sustainability through rejecting profitable deals.

Competitors may claim the same idea, but without fundamentally changing their entire business model, they’ll never truly occupy your mental territory.

Positioning is who you are, not what you say.

Read this for context.

Daily Language CEOs Can Use to Anchor Positioning

Simple, ten-word phrases to keep everyone on-track:

• “Every decision must reinforce the one word we own.”
• “If customers don’t repeat it, it’s not positioning.”
• “Positioning is business design, not brand design.”
• “We sell what they believe, not what we build.”
• “Start with what they’re buying, not what we’re selling.”
• “If we confuse, we lose. Tighten the story.”
• “Everything we do should echo our position.”
• “Campaigns end. Positioning doesn’t.”

Say one of these daily. Make it gospel.

The Boring Stuff That Works

Let’s be honest. This work isn’t always sexy.

Sometimes the fix isn’t a new narrative. It’s:

• Removing features from your pitch
• Renaming plans to match buyer psychology
• Training sales to lead with the noun, not the features
• Saying “no” to a product that doesn’t reinforce your position
• Running a customer interview just to hear their words

This is slow, internal, boring work.
But it compounds.

Finally

Most product marketers are doing feature translation, not positioning.
That’s okay — if they know it.

But calling that “positioning” confuses teams, dilutes leadership, and derails strategy.

If you’re a CEO:

• Own the noun.
• Align the business.
• Say it until your team says it back.

Because if you don’t decide what the business is, the market will.
And it won’t be kind.

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