Positioning isn't marketing's job.

I know. That sounds wrong.

Marketing feels the pain first. They can't drive leads without a clear answer to "why pick us?" So they get tasked with fixing it.

They go into a conference room. Spend a week. Talk to customers. Listen to Gong calls. Come out with new jargon.

A new way to say the thing you've always been doing.

Which isn't positioning at all.

Here's what you actually get: messaging. Homepage copy. Taglines. Value props.

What you don't get: alignment.

Do we all agree on who we're positioning against? Do we agree on what makes us different?

Nope.

The founder has one idea. Marketing has another. Sales pitches it differently. Product thinks differently.

Result? Weak positioning that doesn't stick. Documents in folders. Sales decks that contradict your website. Teams pointing fingers when deals die.

Here's the thing: positioning is a team sport.

Most companies treat it like marketing's problem. That's why it fails.

Today, we're breaking down why—and how to fix it:

• Why marketing-only positioning fails (and what you get instead)

• The misalignment problem: how sales, product, and marketing see positioning differently

• The one thing that fixes it: getting everyone in the same room

Let's dig in.

Why Marketing-Only Positioning Fails

Marketing can steward positioning once you have it. But positioning built in marketing alone doesn't survive outside marketing.

Here's what happens:

Marketing creates positioning. They write it down. They share it with the team.

Sales doesn't believe it. The CEO doesn't believe it. Product thinks it's wrong.

So nobody uses it.

The salesperson points to marketing. Marketing points to sales. Everybody points to product.

But the real problem? Nobody was in the room when positioning was built. Nobody agreed on it. So nobody owns it.

That's the trap.

Marketing wants to do positioning. They feel the pain. But positioning that marketing builds alone becomes messaging. Not positioning.

Messaging = what you say on your homepage.

Positioning = the strategic foundation that messaging comes from.

You can't write good messaging until you know the answer to all five positioning questions.

If you let marketing own positioning 100%, you get new jargon. They'll spend a week in a conference room. Talk to customers. Listen to Gong calls. Come out with a new way to say the thing you've always been doing.

Which isn't positioning.

That's it.

The Misalignment Problem

Positioning touches different parts of the organization differently. And weak positioning usually comes from different teams having different opinions about the components.

Ask different teams "who do we position against?" You'll get different answers.

Sales lists shortlist competitors. Competitors that look like you. They almost never list Excel. Or the intern. Or manual processes. Which is what you're trying to replace.

Product lives in the future. They're thinking about the roadmap. Where you'll be in five years. So they worry about horizon competitors. Someone that doesn't compete with you now. But when you get that cool feature in two years? Then you'll compete with them.

Marketing sees it differently. They're thinking about market categories. How to talk about you in a way that makes sense to prospects.

The founder has an idea. But marketing sees it a little differently. Sales pitches it a little differently. Product thinks about it slightly differently.

Most of the time, weak positioning comes from misalignment. A piece of the company has it right. But the other piece is dull.

Sometimes the founder knows exactly how to tell the story. They crush it in front of customers. But they've gotten big. New VP marketing. New VP sales. New product lead.

They don't understand it the way the founder does.

The founder listens in on a sales call. What they hear is all wrong. They look at marketing. What they see isn't it.

They've tried to get everybody aligned. They can't.

Other times, the market shifted. The founder used to run sales. Did all the deals. Had their arms around the market tight.

Then the company grew fast. They hired senior people to run pieces. But the market shifted.

The head of product or marketing comes in. Says: "I don't think we have this right. I think we're positioned for what the market used to be."

They can't get the founder aligned. Or the team. Because everyone's coming at it with different information.

That's it.

The Fix: Get Everyone in the Same Room

Positioning needs to be a group effort. It's a team sport.

If you want positioning that sticks, get marketing, product, sales, customer success, and the executive team—especially the CEO—together in a room when you're building it.

You can't have marketing cook up positioning and heave it over the wall. You need everyone's expertise. Thrash around on it until you get agreement.

Then you've got alignment. Then everyone can execute. Everyone's singing the same song.

Get the founder or CEO involved. If they're not, it's hard to convince them later that the positioning is good. That it aligns with their understanding of the market.

Here's what each team brings:

Sales knows who shows up on shortlists. They understand customer objections. What actually closes deals. What you lose deals to.

Product understands differentiated capabilities. They know what's coming in the roadmap. What you can do that others can't.

Marketing knows how to translate positioning into messaging. How positioning affects lead generation. They can steward positioning once you have it.

Customer Success knows what makes customers happy. What causes churn. Actual value delivery.

CEO/Founder has the original vision. They need to buy in for positioning to stick.

When it's working, it feels like magic. Great positioning feels obvious. You pitch to people. They're like: "Of course that's it. What else could it be?"

Postman is a perfect example. They have an API platform. A platform for building and using APIs.

That's it. So simple.

But that wasn't simple to get there. That's not how they always described themselves. Three years ago? That's not what you would have gotten as the pitch.

Great positioning just feels obvious.

That clarity comes from alignment. When everyone agrees on all five pieces—competitive alternatives, differentiated capabilities, differentiated value, target market, and market category—you get positioning that sticks.

Everyone understands the same framework. We all know who we're positioning against. We all know our differentiated value. We all know our target market.

No confusion. No blame. Everyone's executing from the same playbook.

Marketing can own executing on positioning once you've figured it out. They can be the steward. Police it to make sure you're consistent in marketing and sales.

It's good to have somebody put their hand up. Say: "Things are changing. We need to come back together and check in on positioning."

But marketing shouldn't change positioning on their own. They could try. But it won't stick. Sales won't believe it. The CEO won't believe it.

You need a cross-functional team. Get together. Make decisions. Get everybody in agreement. Then everyone can execute.

That's it.

Here's what you learned:

• Positioning isn't marketing's job. Marketing can steward it once it's built. But positioning built in marketing alone doesn't survive outside marketing.

• The misalignment problem: Sales, product, and marketing see positioning differently. Sales sees shortlist competitors. Product sees horizon competitors. Marketing sees market categories. Without alignment, you get weak positioning.

• The fix: Get everyone in the same room. Marketing, product, sales, customer success, and leadership (especially the CEO) need to agree on all five positioning pieces. Then everyone can execute from the same playbook.

Most positioning fails because teams don't align on the five pieces.

Get everyone in the same room. Build it together. Get agreement. Then everyone can execute. Everyone's singing the same song.

This week, schedule a cross-functional positioning session. Get marketing, product, sales, customer success, and leadership in the same room.

Start with one question: "Do we all agree on who we're positioning against?"

If the answers are different, you've found your misalignment. That's where you start.

Want to see how successful companies actually position themselves? Explore 100+ real positioning canvases from companies that are winning—startups, scale-ups, companies that raised rounds, companies that hit revenue milestones.

See how they answer all five positioning questions. Learn from real examples, not templates.

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Best,

Adi