Positioning: How to be chosen in the AI era

Justin Lebbon sits down with Paul Evans, founder and chief positioning engineer of Version, a specialist B2B positioning studio for data and technology businesses. Drawing on a career spanning Vodafone, senior agency roles and global ad tech, Paul makes the case that positioning is a CEO-level strategic capability — not a marketing afterthought — and explains why it matters more than ever in a market flooded with AI-generated sameness. Highlights: What positioning actually is — Paul's definition: "the translation of the business you want to become into the differentiated context with which you'll be chosen." It's about category, competitive framing, the problem you solve and the value only you create. The documentation gap — HubSpot research cited in the episode found roughly half of B2B businesses operate without documented positioning. Clutter and competitive intensity — G2 lists around 200,000 software vendors, 15,000 MarTech vendors and 12,000 ad tech vendors; standing out means claiming a category, not listing features. A real repositioning — How Compliant created the "data integrity" category, took it to market with the World Federation of Advertisers, and was acquired by PubX roughly two years later. Positioning as software — Think major/minor/patch: Lovable's head of growth reportedly repositions the business every ninety days. Positioning people, not just companies — Paul live-positions Justin against Mark Ritson to illustrate category, audience and competitive difference. AI is flattening content — A study of OpenAI and DeepSeek fed the same prompt produced outputs around 80% similar; a cited survey found ~69% of B2B marketers say AI noise and low-quality content is making their job harder. The human answer — "Zig when everyone else is zagging": human writing, a real point of view, and interrogating AI rather than accepting the average. What's next — Paul has a positioning book under contract (aiming to draft 40,000 words over Christmas) and has already published a children's picture book, The Diplodocus Who Couldn't Focus, celebrating neurodiversity. Key takeaways Positioning is a strategic, CEO-level capability — the translation of the business you want to become into the context by which customers choose you — not messaging or copywriting. HubSpot research cited in the episode found about half of B2B businesses operate without documented positioning. With ~200,000 software vendors on G2 (and 15,000 MarTech, 12,000 ad tech), claiming a category and articulating value beats listing features. Positioning should be versioned like software — revisited as markets, competitors, M&A and product roadmaps change; Lovable reportedly repositions every 90 days. AI is flattening content: a cited study found OpenAI and DeepSeek produced ~80% similar output on an identical prompt, and ~69% of B2B marketers say the resulting noise makes their job harder. Differentiation is about being different, not better — and the human antidote to AI sameness is a genuine point of view and sharper prompting.