Foundational Clarity
Positioning, category design, and the core narrative that decides how the market understands you.
Chapters 1 to 8
Out September 22, 2026
Nobody Knows What You Do
Most B2B companies do not stall because the product is weak. They stall because they scaled misalignment before they got clear. Twenty-seven chapters and a five-layer framework on how to fix that, drawn from twenty-five years across startups, Google, and AT&T. Hardcover and paperback.
The argument
Ask your eight most senior leaders to finish one sentence: “We are a ______ company.”
You might get eight different answers. That gap has a name, and a cost.
Narrative debt is the gap between what a company actually does and what its market believes it does. It never shows up on a dashboard. But it stretches the sales cycle, scatters the marketing, and makes growth harder than it should be. It compounds quietly, and the balance comes due in the raise, the pipeline, or the exit multiple. The Power of Relationships was the prior work.
The framework
The five layers of strategic clarity, in order.
Most go-to-market books cover one layer: messaging, or positioning, or channels. This one covers all five, in sequence, as a system. Every chapter ends with a Founder Checklist and a Founder Exercise. It is built to be used, not just read.
Execution Architecture
Turning strategy into the operating systems and messaging that actually carry it to market.
Chapters 9 to 13
Growth System
The channels, demand engine, and motion that turn clarity into repeatable pipeline.
Chapters 14 to 19
Conversion and Retention
Closing the loop. Converting attention into revenue and customers into advocates.
Chapters 20 to 23
Scaling and Discipline
The discipline of scaling without losing the thread that made you effective in the first place.
Chapters 24 to 27
The book is the framework. The engagement is me running it on your company.
25 yrs
In B2B
$425M+
Raised for clients
$2.5B+
In client exits
27
Chapters
Advance praise
What founders, investors, and operators are saying
Positioning is one of the most misunderstood disciplines in B2B, and Jeff Lerner gets it right. A clear, actionable framework for how founders should think about brand, messaging, and go-to-market before they scale. This is the book I'll be recommending to every early-stage founder I work with.
Most books on go-to-market describe the destination without giving you the map. This gives you both. Jeff has spent 25 years inside the problem he's writing about, and it shows on every page. I'll be handing this to every founder I work with before they spend another dollar on marketing.
Nobody Knows What You Do is methodical, practical, and grounded in real-world case studies. You feel the logic rather than just understand it. It's the book every founder needs on their shelf. I am recommending it without reservation.
This book reflects not only a deep understanding of successful go-to-market actions but the real-world experience of someone who has consistently helped organizations grow and communicate with impact.
September 22, 2026
The opening is up now.
The Preface and the full Introduction are free to read today on the book site: the setup for the five-layer framework, on the house. Pre-order details and launch-week events live there too. The rest arrives on the twenty-second.
Want to see what your narrative debt is costing you?
A five-minute assessment, scored against the same framework I run on every engagement. You get the result without a call.