How to Get Your Employees to Sell Like You, and Why Positioning for Customers Fails With Acquirers, Featuring the World’s Leading Positioning Expert, April Dunford | Built to Sell Radio

If you own a company, chances are you’re its best salesperson. Put you in a room with a prospect and you rarely lose. But listen to your employees try to tell the same story and something gets lost. You’ve tried hiring salespeople. You’ve tried training them. The selling keeps landing back on your shoulders, and when it comes time to sell, an acquirer will see it too. Expect an earn-out or an equity rollover, golden handcuffs designed to keep the rainmaker locked in. 

Here’s what most owners miss: you have a built-in advantage no salesperson can replicate. Your founder story defines the enemy, the problem, and why you built something better, and you tell it instinctively because you lived it. A new rep who tries to recite your story will sound like a fraud. The fix isn’t better sales training. It’s giving your team professional positioning, and nobody on the planet knows more about positioning than April Dunford. She spent 25 years as an executive at seven B2B technology startups, companies that were acquired for a combined total of more than two billion dollars, and her books, Obviously Awesome and Sales Pitch, are the standard playbooks for explaining why customers should pick you over the competition. In this episode of Built to Sell Radio, you discover how to: 

• Spot weak positioning by listening to one first sales call, and the customer reaction that gives it away 

• Answer the only question that reveals your real competition: if your company didn’t exist, what would customers do 

• Avoid the earn-out trap by proving your revenue doesn’t depend on you 

• Break down your founder story into pieces a brand-new rep can deliver without sounding like a fraud 

• Sell like the rep who taught Dunford to buy a toilet in three minutes by acting as a guide, not a pitchman 

• Understand why an acquirer may ignore your revenue and 90 percent of your customers 

• Reposition your business for a buyer who is comparing you to other investments, not other products 

Show Notes & Links

Visit aprildunford.com

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Definitions

Letter of Intent (LOI): This document outlines the basic terms and conditions of a deal before a formal agreement is drawn up. It serves as a mutual commitment between the buyer and the seller to move forward with the transaction on the agreed-upon terms.

Due-Diligence: This is a comprehensive appraisal of a business or investment undertaken before a merger, acquisition, or investment. It seeks to validate the information provided and uncover any potential risks or liabilities.

Earn-out: This is a financing arrangement for the purchase of a business, where the seller must meet certain performance goals before receiving the full purchase price. It reduces the buyer’s risk and aligns the interests of both parties post-acquisition.

About Our Guest

April Dunford

April Dunford is a globally recognized expert in product positioning, marketing strategy, and category creation. She has helped dozens of B2B technology companies sharpen their market positioning to accelerate growth and has held executive marketing leadership roles at multiple successful startups. April is the author of the bestselling books Obviously Awesome and Sales Pitch, which have become essential resources for founders, marketers, and sales leaders looking to clearly communicate their value. Through her consulting, writing, and speaking, she helps businesses stand out in competitive markets and build stronger, more effective go-to-market strategies.