Why Half of All Decisions End in No Decision (And How to Fix It)
By: Eric JanssenApril Dunford's positioning principles don't just help you close deals—they help you influence decisions in every area of life.
When April Dunford needed a new toilet during a home renovation, she figured it would be a simple purchase.
She was wrong.
Faced with hundreds of nearly identical models and an overwhelming array of features she didn't understand, she froze. Despite hours of research and multiple showroom visits, she bought nothing. The options blurred together. The decision felt too risky. So she did what many buyers do: she defaulted to the status quo and kept her old toilet.
Then a salesperson reframed the entire decision. Instead of listing features, he positioned toilets into three simple categories: quality, aesthetics, and space-saving design. Within five minutes, Dunford confidently chose one.
That experience crystallized something Dunford had observed throughout her 25-year career helping B2B tech companies win in crowded markets:
Positioning matters to all of us, all the time, whether we realize it or not.
When someone evaluates a product, reviews a job candidate, or swipes through dating profiles, they're instinctively asking: What is this? Who is it for? Why should I care? Without clear positioning, without a structured way to understand their options, people default to confusion, hesitation, and ultimately, no decision at all.
As CEO of Ambient Strategy and author of Obviously Awesome and Sales Pitch, Dunford has built her career on a single insight: great positioning is a foundational sales and marketing skill. And I think the principles that help products break through apply just as powerfully to other applications like career moves, and partnerships.
On a recent episode of our Sales Reframed podcast, Dunford shared six positioning lessons that can transform how you approach not just sales, but everything you "sell" in life. Her mission? In a world where research shows that 40-50% of B2B deals end in no decision, help people choose with confidence.
1. Own Your Positioning, Or Someone Else Will
Positioning is universal and unavoidable. People will categorize you, your work, and your ideas whether you guide that process or not.
Dunford defines positioning as "how your product—or your idea, or even you—is the best in the world at delivering some value that certain people really care about." Without intentional positioning, people fill in the blanks themselves, often incorrectly.
In sales, it manifests when prospects dismiss your solution as "just another database" because you haven't clearly positioned what makes it different.
Takeaway: If you don't position yourself intentionally, others will do it through assumptions. Take control of the story people tell about you, your work, and your value.
2. Your Real Competition Is the Status Quo
When companies think about competition, they typically look at other vendors in their category. But Dunford emphasizes a more useful frame: your true competitor is what your customer would do if you didn't exist.
Often, that's not another product, it's a clunky workaround or simply doing nothing at all.
Dunford illustrates this with a startup she worked with that had developed a lightning-fast analytics engine. They described it as a "new kind of database." Buyers dismissed it immediately because they didn't think they needed a new database. In reality, the product competed with homegrown data warehouses cobbled together with Excel workarounds.
The breakthrough came when they repositioned. Instead of a "new database," they called it a "pre-built warehouse for machine-generated data." Suddenly, buyers saw it not as an unnecessary addition but as the obvious solution to a problem they already had.
This principle extends everywhere. When you ask someone out, you're not just competing with other potential dates, you're competing with the comfort and safety of staying single.
Takeaway: The status quo is stickier than you think. Until you acknowledge that inertia is your real competitor and reposition accordingly, your pitches won't land.
3. Reduce Cognitive Load, Not Just Objections
One of the biggest killers of decisions is paralysis. Research Dunford cites in Sales Pitch shows that 40-60% of B2B sales stall not because the current solution is better, but because buyers get stuck. Too many options, too many features, too much data.
Most sales teams respond by delivering more: more demos, more features, more case studies. But as Dunford explains, information alone doesn't create confidence, it often creates anxiety. The buyer's real need isn't more data points but a framework: a structured way to think about the decision so they feel safe moving forward.
Think about job hunting. A candidate who lists every skill and project often leaves hiring managers confused. But a candidate who frames their experience around the three things that matter most for this role makes the decision easy.
Back to that toilet salesperson: he didn't add information. He removed complexity. Quality, aesthetics, space: three categories that made an overwhelming decision suddenly manageable.
Takeaway: Your role in any influence situation is to reduce cognitive load. Give people a framework that helps them decide, not more information that paralyzes them.
4. Lead with Insight, Not Obvious Problems
Most sales pitches open with problems everyone already knows about. The issue? Every competitor claims to solve those same problems, making you sound interchangeable.
Dunford's approach: flip the script. Lead with an insight only you can bring. What do you see in the market that others miss? What's the real root cause they're ignoring? What blind spot are they overlooking?
When you start with your unique perspective, you immediately frame the conversation on your terms and position yourself as the expert. As Dunford puts it: "Starting with my particular insight is a much better way of starting the conversation because it's unique to me." You're not just stating the obvious—you're teaching people how to think differently about the problem.
This works in job interviews ("Here's what I noticed about your market position that most people miss"), strategy presentations ("The real issue isn't execution, it's prioritization"), and even first dates ("Most people think this city has no good coffee, but here's what they don't know").
Takeaway: Don't compete on obvious problems. Lead with insight that reframes how people think about the situation, and positions you as someone worth listening to.
5. Be a Guide, Not a Spec Sheet
Many B2B sales reps deliver pitches by reading from spec sheets or clicking through features one by one in a demo, hoping something sticks. Dunford believes the best salespeople behave as guides instead.
Being a guide doesn't mean being pushy. It means helping people understand their options, showing them where trade-offs lie, and simplifying decisions so they can choose with confidence.
That toilet salesperson exemplified this approach. He didn't hide his opinions, but he didn't push them either. He showed Dunford how to think about her options, helped her eliminate the wrong ones, and left her feeling empowered to decide.
Dunford explains that great guides structure their pitches in two parts:
Setup: Present your market insight, lay out the options, and define what the ideal solution would look like.
Follow-through: Show how your product uniquely delivers that ideal outcome.
This two-step framing positions you as a trusted advisor rather than just another vendor. The decision feels shared and confident instead of overwhelming.
Takeaway: In any situation where people feel overwhelmed, guide them. Have a point of view, offer clear comparisons, and give them the clarity to choose with confidence.
6. Ground Your Positioning in Reality, Not Research
According to Dunford, most bad positioning stems from relying too heavily on industry reports, competitor websites, or market research. None of these sources reflect what actually happens in real conversations.
The people who know best are on the front lines: sales reps who see which competitors show up in deals, which objections actually slow things down, and which features prospects don't care about at all. That raw, unfiltered input fuels effective positioning.
When Dunford works with companies that have misaligned positioning, the problem usually isn't the product, it's how they're framing it. They've built something valuable but aren't talking about it in a way that aligns with how customers see the world. Fixing that requires listening to real customers in real conversations, not relying on abstract strategy sessions.
This applies beyond sales. When positioning yourself for a promotion, don't guess what your boss values, ask what they prioritize and listen to how they describe success. When advocating for a new initiative, talk to the people who would implement it, not just the executives who would approve it.
Takeaway: Whether you're marketing a product, advocating for yourself, or testing an idea, ground your positioning in reality. Talk to the people making decisions. Don't hide behind reports or assumptions.
We're All in the Influence Business
Dunford's work reminds us that positioning isn't confined to sales or marketing, it's a universal skill that shows up everywhere we try to influence decisions.
Every time you help someone understand an idea, make a choice, or see things from your perspective, you're practicing positioning. The people who succeed most consistently aren't louder, smarter, or flashier. They're the ones who help others navigate complexity with clarity, empathy, and structure. They create context, offer insight, and empower people to act with confidence.
That's how trust is built. When people make confident decisions with your help, they remember it. And they look to you when the next decision comes.
Whether you're selling a product, pitching yourself, or simply trying to help someone choose a toilet, the principles remain the same: reduce complexity, lead with insight, acknowledge the real competition, and guide people toward confident action.
Because in the end, you're not just selling products or ideas. You're helping people make informed decisions. And that might be the most valuable skill of all.
