Differentiate your business. We need a differentiator; as an industry, we’re being commoditized. We won’t be able to stay in business forever unless things change.
Thoughts of the day: Offering something unique to differentiate your business boosts profitability and chances for survival in any small business. Avoid price wars. Turn away some buyers in order to create value. Don’t get complacent. Be nimble.
Make your business stand out
Give clients a reason to choose you. Convenience, advice, results, consistency, confidence, a combo offer, reliability, affiliation, or something special — these are all reasons clients might choose your company’s solution over anyone else’s. Decide what value to offer the market and find the market that values your offer.
Dare to be extraordinary. Don’t worry that you can’t match what some other vendor brings to the market. Do what others can’t or won’t do, so long as you can charge enough to realize a significant profit.
Make sure that the clients you are targeting have renewal capability of their own. Focus on buyers who will be around in the future, asking for more than they do today. Compete as much for future opportunities as you do for current market share.
Differentiate your business
Watch out for buyers who put out low-cost bids. They are not looking for something special. They are trying to drive a wedge between your value proposition and your pricing strategy. As they sneak in to grab what your company offers at the lowest possible price, they set in motion a chain of events that result in your company’s products or services looking just like everyone else’s.
Believe it — nobody wins a price war. It’s a race to the bottom. Profit evaporates and with it so do funds that could be invested in creating or supporting unique solutions. Don’t go there.
Seek out customers who are learners, innovators, forward-thinkers. Build around them. They’ll keep your business young.
Leverage your audience
Serve the needs of existing customers who want the same old thing. But don’t invest a lot of time or energy trying to hang onto them. When they’re ready to move on, let them go. They’re part of your past, not your future.
Exclusivity is a powerful tool. Creating “have-nots” can be part of building a value proposition. If everyone wants what your company offers, that’s great. But it may not be so great if everyone can actually acquire it.
Watch out for competitors who copy what you offer. While it’s a form of flattery, it’s also a warning sign. Someone else is moving in on your territory. Reinvent yourself before they make you obsolete.
Sellers who forget to reinvent themselves regularly, who stop listening to their future clients — those are the companies that eventually sink into oblivion. Always think about what comes next. Continuously work on what you will offer one, three, five, and 10 years from now.
Survey the landscape
Occasionally companies have an opportunity to be “the last man standing.” Only try this strategy if everyone else is getting out and if customers can afford to pay more than they do at present.
Be on the lookout for companies that stopped reinventing themselves. Sellers who get complacent are ripe for the picking. When they run out of steam, step in with a plan to take over their market.
Smaller companies can make changes rapidly. That is a real competitive advantage. Offer existing clients new solutions. Test receptivity until you know what drives value. Then create campaigns to get the marketplace to follow your lead.
Try “Becoming a Category of One: How Extraordinary Companies Transcend Commodity and Defy Comparison” by Joe Calloway.
