What are competitive alternatives in positioning?

What counts as a competitive alternative

The idea comes from April Dunford's book Obviously Awesome (2019), where competitive alternatives are one of the five parts of positioning. Her books page says the book breaks positioning into five component pieces (aprildunford.com/books, read 2026-10-14). A summary of her advice on Section's blog frames the starting point as a hypothetical: "If we didn't exist, what would a customer do?" (Section, read 2026-10-14).

Our method adds one hard line to that question. An alternative is what the customer actually does today, not the vendor list from a category report. A rival only makes the list if buyers really turn to it. The method also adds two alternatives to every list: doing nothing, and a person plus a spreadsheet.

The Positioning statement tool offers six to pick from:

• Spreadsheets
• Manual work
• A named competitor
• An agency or freelancer
• Build it in-house
• Do nothing

You have to pick at least two. In our view, most real lists mix a named rival with at least one option that is not a product at all.

What to write for each alternative

This is step 2 of the nine steps in our method. Steps 2 to 6 follow Dunford; the words and the evidence rules are ours. For each alternative, the method asks for five things, in this order.

1. Name it the way the buyer would. "Our shared Excel rota" beats "legacy tools". If it is a rival, use its name.
2. Write what the buyer gets from it. In our view, every alternative earns its place by doing something. A spreadsheet, for example, is often already open on the team's laptops.
3. Write what it costs them. Time, errors, money, risk, or the job left half done. In our view, the cost is where your positioning later finds its opening.
4. Write where your evidence came from. A buyer quote, a review, a lost deal, a call note, with a date. An alternative with no evidence line is labelled ASSUMED.
5. Rank the list. The top-ranked alternative is the one your positioning has to beat, and it fills the Unlike line of the statement. An ASSUMED alternative cannot be ranked first.

The refusal rule. The method will not position you against a competitor chosen because it was easy to beat. In the method's words, that produces a document that wins an argument nobody is having. If you cannot evidence a single alternative, the method stops and says what would close the gap. The tool sets the floor at proof for at least two of the alternatives you picked.

The output is a ranked table with one row per alternative and a column for each part above. Step 3 then looks for what is true of your product and not true of the top alternatives. In our view, a weak list here weakens every step after it.

Worked sample: Calendly's homepage, read for its alternatives

"All the work around meetings, handled."

"From AI-powered scheduling to automated meeting recaps and follow-ups, get the busywork done with fewer tools and less effort."

Read on 2026-10-14. Source: Calendly homepage

That is the H1 and the subhead. Further down, a section headed "Meet Callie, your AI assistant" says:

"Instead of managing scheduling links and calendars yourself, just add callie@calendly.com to the email thread. Say what you need and let Callie take it from there."

Read on 2026-10-14. Source: Calendly homepage

In our view, a homepage is not a positioning document, but its copy shows which alternatives it names, so you can read it against step 2.

What the copy does well. The Callie line does what the method asks for in plain words. It opens with "Instead of" and names what the reader does today: managing links and calendars by hand. In our reading, that is an alternative written the way a buyer would say it. The subhead names costs, "busywork" and "effort", and hints at a second alternative in "fewer tools". In our reading, both sentences frame the competition as the reader's own workload, not another vendor.

What is missing, against the five parts. The quoted copy names alternatives but shows no evidence that buyers use them, so by the method's rule every row is ASSUMED. Nothing is ranked, so the copy does not say which alternative it has to beat. "Fewer tools" never says which tools. Doing nothing and the spreadsheet, the two the method always adds, do not appear in the quoted copy.

The fix, as a filled-in table. Each row uses the page's words or the method's two defaults. The quoted copy does not say what Calendly's buyers really use, so the evidence slots stay open and we do not guess a rank.

#  Alternative                                   Buyer gets                 Costs them           Evidence         ASSUMED?
-  Managing scheduling links and calendars       [needs evidence]           busywork, effort     [needs evidence] yes
   yourself
-  Several separate tools ("fewer tools")        [needs evidence]           [needs evidence]     [needs evidence] yes
-  Doing nothing (method default)                [needs evidence]           [needs evidence]     [needs evidence] yes
-  A person plus a spreadsheet (method default)  [needs evidence]           [needs evidence]     [needs evidence] yes

With every row ASSUMED, nothing can be ranked first and the Unlike line stays empty. That is the method working as designed. The next move is evidence from buyers, such as a call note or a review, not more copy.

Common mistakes

• Copying the category report. The method's rule is what the customer actually does today, and a vendor grid only lists who sells in the space. Start from calls, reviews and lost deals instead.
• Picking the rival you can beat. The method refuses this outright. Rank by what buyers really do, even when the top alternative is hard to beat.
• Leaving out doing nothing and the spreadsheet. The method adds both to every list. In our view, if evidence shows neither applies, rank them low but keep them visible.
• Skipping the cost column. In our view, an alternative without a cost is only a name, and the cost is what your value line later has to answer.
• Ranking a hunch first. An ASSUMED alternative cannot take the top spot. Find one dated piece of proof, or rank something you can prove.
• Writing "competitors" in the Unlike line. The statement names one alternative. If an installed rival tops your list, selling against the tool buyers already have covers that case.

Questions people ask

What would the customer do if my product didn't exist?

Section's summary of Dunford's advice opens with a version of it, and in our view it is the right place to start. In our method, the answer has to come from buyers, not from your own guess. Ask recent buyers and lost deals what they used before, or what they kept. Write each answer as an alternative with what it gives, what it costs and where you heard it. Anything you cannot trace to a buyer is labelled ASSUMED.

What does competitive positioning mean?

In our view, competitive positioning is where buyers place your product against the options they weigh. Competitive alternatives are the input to it: the list of those options, ranked by what buyers really do. In our method, the unique attributes in step 3 are tested against the top alternatives, and the top one is named in the Unlike line. The positioning statement is where the result is written down.

Sources

• Obviously Awesome, April Dunford, 2019 (book)
• April Dunford, Books, https://www.aprildunford.com/books, read 2026-10-14
• "3 steps to uncover your real competitors (hint: they may not be who you think)", Section, https://www.sectionai.com/blog/3-steps-to-uncover-your-real-competitors, read 2026-10-14
• Calendly homepage, https://calendly.com/, read 2026-10-14
• Google People also ask for "what are competitive alternatives in positioning", https://www.google.com/, read 2026-10-14
• Our positioning-statement method skill and the Positioning statement tool on this site (ours, read 2026-10-14)