Why might customers compare you to something you don't actually compete with?

Because they think they understand you, but they’re mapping you against the wrong competitors. This misalignment indicates weak positioning and causes confusion about where you fit.

What should you focus on when evaluating positioning for a brand-new prospect?

What matters is how long it takes the prospect to click and understand where you fit. It’s more important than whether grandma would understand it, which is a less relevant measure.

What does the 'grandmother test' mean in this talk?

It's a metaphor for clarity: if grandma would understand it, the message is simple, but the speaker notes that this isn’t always necessary if you're not selling to grandmothers. The key is clarity to the target buyers.

What question might a prospect ask that signals confusion about paying for your product?

They might say, I get what you are and who you compete with, but I don't really get why we would pay money for it. That hesitation signals a weak value case.

Where is the idea of 'bucket' mentioned in the talk?

The speaker mentions 'bucket' when describing the confusion about which category or market bucket the offering belongs in.

What is the overall takeaway about positioning in this talk?

Positioning should be clear to new prospects and aligned with how they actually buy. Avoid misperceptions about competitors and ensure the messaging helps customers understand why to buy.

Why Customers Can't Figure Out What You Sell | April Dunford

The Knowledge Project

People & Blogs5 min read1 min video

Mar 7, 2026|844 views|8

Shane Parrish Farnam Street The Knowledge Project Farnam Street Podcast Mental Models shane parrish podcast shane parrish the knowledge project shane parrish interview shane parrish video April Dunford Marketing Positioning

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Key Moments

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TL;DR

Positioning must click quickly; avoid bucket confusion and unclear value.

Key Insights

The grandmother test is not a reliable metric; real buyers determine if you resonate.

A strong positioning is measured by how fast a new prospect understands what you sell.

Weak positioning shows up as bucket confusion—buyers can’t place you in a category.

Some prospects think they understand you but actually compare you to the wrong competitors.

A critical risk is prospects saying they get you but don’t see why they should pay for it; value must be explicit.

CHANGING THE TEST: FROM GRANDMOTHER TO PROSPECT CLICK-THROUGH

Positioning isn’t validated by whether your grandmother can understand your jargon; it’s validated by a brand-new buyer quickly recognizing what you sell and where you fit. The speaker argues the grandmother test is irrelevant for most markets, because your audience isn’t grandmothers but specialized buyers with real problems. The real metric is how long it takes a first-time prospect to ‘get it’—to place you into a meaningful category and understand your role relative to the market. If there’s delay, confusion, or a blank look, your positioning is failing at its core.

RECOGNIZING A WEAK POSITIONING: THE BUCKET PROBLEM

The transcript highlights a telltale symptom: customers can’t decide which bucket to put you in. When your messaging is murky, a brand-new buyer must improvise a category and struggle to place you alongside familiar options. That bucket ambiguity isn’t trivial—it drives how buyers budget, compare, and decide. The result is a longer sales cycle, more questions, and a perception that you don’t belong to a well-defined market. If you can’t anchor yourself in a clear category, you’re inviting buyer friction from the first impression.

ANOTHER SIGN: MASTERS OF CONFUSION STILL THINK THEY GET IT

Another common sign, according to the speaker, is when prospects believe they understand you, yet they’re actually comparing you to something you don’t really compete with. This implies the benchmark in their mind is a different product, solution, or category. The mismatch means your messaging may appear credible but irrelevant to the buyer’s real decision frame. It also suggests that competitors are influencing the buyer’s mental map in ways that misrepresent your true value. Correcting this requires aligning your positioning with the concrete alternatives buyers truly consider.

THE TERRIFYING PART: WHY WE WOULD PAY MONEY

Perhaps the most alarming warning in the transcript is that a prospect can say, 'I get what you are and who you compete with, but I don’t get why we would pay money for it.' In other words, even with basic recognition, the ROI story is missing. Without a clear value proposition—outcomes, cost savings, or revenue impact—buyers won’t see the financial justification to purchase. This is less about technical specs and more about perceived value: what outcome do you deliver, and how is that worth the price? The gap between identification and valuation is the scariest signal of weak positioning.

VALUE-FIRST MESSAGING VS. FEATURES

Across these signs, a thread emerges: buyers care about outcomes, not features or jargon. If the messaging stays at a product level, a new buyer may understand what it is but not why it matters to them. Positioning should translate capabilities into tangible benefits and outcomes the buyer recognises. The speaker’s emphasis on ‘clicking’ quickly implies that successful positioning translates to a clear promise of value—a simple narrative that a busy buyer can absorb in seconds. When value isn’t explicit, the product remains a checkbox rather than a decision driver.

COMPETITION PERCEPTION SHAPES CHOICES

People often equate your offering with a familiar competitor or substitute, even if you don’t actually compete on the same terms. The transcript notes that buyers may compare you to something you don’t realistically contend with, corrupting the evaluation. This misalignment can hollow out your market signal, because buyers measure you against the wrong yardstick. The fix is to redefine your competitive frame so that it aligns with the real choices buyers consider, and to anchor your messaging in how you are distinct in outcomes, not just features or market slogans.

HOW PROSPECTS EXPERIENCE YOUR BRAND: TIMING MATTERS

The timing of recognition matters: how soon after first contact does a buyer ‘get it’? The transcript implies that rapid clarity indicates strong positioning, while delayed clarity signals a disconnect between messaging, market category, and buyer needs. This isn't about clever taglines; it's about an enforceable category and a consistent value story. When buyers struggle to classify you, they stall at the awareness stage and may never progress to consider or purchase. Ensuring that a prospect can label you confidently is a practical barometer for the effectiveness of your positioning.

COHERENCE ACROSS CATEGORY, BRAND, AND BUYER NEEDS

Positioning coherence requires alignment across the market category, the brand, and the buyer’s pain points. The transcript nudges us to consider whether brand language consistently communicates who you are serving and why that matters. If the category is fuzzy, brand messaging, sales pitches, and even product naming can become inconsistent. The result is cognitive load for buyers and a hesitancy to engage. A tight linkage between category, value narrative, and buyer persona helps prospects move from confusion to recognition, enabling faster decisions and more effective sales conversations.

DETECTION: EARLY WARNINGS OF WEAK POSITIONING

From a diagnostic standpoint, these signs function as early warnings. If new prospects struggle to place you or think they understand you but are using the wrong comparison, you’re probably seeing positioning issues before deeper sales metrics reveal themselves. The transcript encourages teams to observe buyer cognition—how quickly and accurately a first-time viewer can categorize your offering. This cognitive check becomes a practical tool for testing messaging, category labels, and the clarity of the value proposition before campaigns scale or budgets grow.

TAKEAWAYS: ALIGNMENT, CLARITY, AND BUYER VALUE

Putting the discussion together, the core message is to minimize cognitive friction for buyers. Clarity about what you sell, who it’s for, and why it’s worth paying for should be anchored in a concrete category and a vivid value narrative. The absence of alignment creates confusion, misdirected comparisons, and stalled willingness to buy. The takeaway is to test positioning with new prospects, force a clear category, and craft the ROI story in terms of outcomes. When you achieve that alignment, your messaging stops being a guess and starts driving concrete buyer actions.

Positioning Quick Reference: Do's and Don'ts

Practical takeaways from this episode

Do This

Lead with a clear target audience and the buying rationale for your offering.

Ensure your message maps to how new prospects categorize the category.

Test messaging with fresh prospects to confirm quick understanding.

Align the value proposition to the actual decision factors customers use to buy.

Avoid This

Don’t rely on the “grandmother test” as a sole measure of clarity.

Don’t let messaging imply you compete with the wrong alternatives or misplace your category.

Common Questions

The customer can't figure out what the product is. They look at the offering and say they just can't tell what it is. This signals that the positioning is unclear to new prospects.