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Differentiate And Dominate
By John Jantsch, Sat Dec 10th
Copyright 2005 John Jantsch Quite often small business owners will ask me to reveal the mostpowerful marketing strategy I have seen. I can say withouthesitation that the most powerful marketing strategy has littleto do with advertising, direct mail, web sites, referrals orblogs. No, before any of those things will really have any impact onyour business you’ve got to uncover and communicate a way inwhich your business in different from every other business thatsays they do what you do. You’ve got to get out of the commoditybusiness. You’ve got to stake your claim on a simple idea orposition in the mind of your prospective clients.
Here’s what I mean. I have a client that provides customcomputer programming. Essentially, they use programminglanguages to build custom applications for businesses. What theydo is often hard to explain and even harder to put a price on,making it difficult for a prospective client to comparedifferent companies. As a way to differentiate their business,they have begun to offer something they call Perfect Coaching.Perfect Coaching is a unique blend of training and programmingand, here’s the key, no one else in their business is offeringanything like it. Prospects like the sound of it and are askingto know more. It’s too early to tell but I suspect this point ofdifference will open a lot of doors for them. Ways to differentiate Let’s look at a number of tried and true ways to claim a uniquepoint of difference. Product – Can you offer a product that is so unique or eventrendy that your business is associated with that offering? Or,can you extend a product and offer a valuable service to makethe product more useful to the customer. Service – Same goes for a service. Many times this can be thepackaging of a service as a product. Consulting is oftendelivered on an hourly basis. Packaging a consulting engagementbased on an outcome, with defined deliverables and fixed packageprice is a very effective way to differentiate a serviceoffering. Don’t forget to give the service a powerful name! Market Niche – Carve out an industry or two and become the mostdominant player serving that industry. A really nice bonus tothis approach is you can usually raise your prices dramaticallywhen you specialize in this manner. Offer – Can you become known by an offer you make? I know anaccountant that offer his tax preparation clients a 100% refundon their preparation fee when they refer four new clients. Theyare the 100% refund tax guys. Solve a Problem – Is there something that prospects in yourmarket fear or seem to believe is universal for what you do? Ifso, focus on communicating how you have the answer. Painlessdentistry for example. I know a remodeling contractor who foundthat what his clients appreciated the most was the way his crewscleaned up at the end of the day. He began
to promote the factthat he owned more ShopVacs then any other remodeling contractoron the planet. Message of Value – Many times there are things that you do thatdon’t get communicated. Extra that you provide or services youthink should be included. Your positioning might just rest inmore effectively communicating what you do. I know an officefurniture dealer that has adopted the message – We Make YourBusiness More Valuable – to communicate all the things theybring to the party. Now, everything they do is focused ondelivering on that statement. Everyone else in the industrysells furniture. Unique habit – I know a financial planner who has his client’scar detailed right out in his parking lot when they come in fortheir annual review. They can't help but rave to their friendsabout this unique touch. Guarantee – Can you offer a guarantee so strong that no one elsein your industry would dream of doing it. This one frightenssome people but, you probably guarantee your work anyway, youjust don’t say so. Come out and boldly announce that youguarantee results and watch what happens! Customer Service – Everyone knows the story of over the topcustomer service provided by Nordstrom’s Create your own overthe top customer response system and word of mouth advertisingwill flow liberally. One of the greatest ways to kick this offis to over deliver on your first customer contact. Give themsomething more than you promised, give them a gift, give them arelated service for free. Against the competition – Many times you can create yourcategory niche by looking for holes in the offerings of yourcompetitors. If every one in industry fails to address a certainproblem, boldly grab on to solving that problem and use yourcompetition as the point of difference. Clues to uncovering your difference Look at your current clients. What common elements exist amongyour best clients? Interview your clients. See if they can tellyou why they chose to work with, why they stay, why they refer?Study your competitors more closely. What do they do that youcould do better, what don’t they offer they you could, how dothey position themselves? Communicate the difference Once you find your chosen strategy or combination of strategiesto differentiate your business, all of your advertising andpromotion should be centered around shouting about thatdifference. Commit to it, stay at it and resist the temptation to wander offin the next new direction. Building a brand, and that’s what I’mtalking about, takes time and patience. The payoff, however, iswhat differentiates the winners from the losers in this bigmarketing game. About the author:John Jantsch is a marketing consultant based in Kansas City, Mo.He writes frequently on real world small business marketingtactics and is the creator of “Duct Tape Marketing” a turn-keysmall business marketing system. Check out his blogs athttp://www.DuctTapeMarketing.com/weblog.php andhttp://www.BloggingBusiness.com
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