Positioning and Segmentation: What Product Marketers Have Forgotten

I am spending a lot of time right now talking to high tech marketing and business executives. Everyone, justifiably, is focused on their sales numbers, even to the extent of relegating product marketing toward a field marketing role. There's no doubt that any activity in this economy that more closely aligns marketing and sales is a good thing, and the more competitive, product and business information that the sales team has, the better.

However, some very valuable product marketing fundamentals are being lost in the process, the sophisticated use of positioning and segmentation. When product marketing is focused on field marketing, positioning becomes messaging and value proposition. That's great for an individual deal or even types of prospects, but it's not sufficient to move markets and increase market share.