Better Profits

How to Differentiate Your Business

Posted on Sep 27, 2007 in Better Profits by Kevin Levi 3 Comments

Rules of Business Positioning

1. Differentiation is a business imperative today, not only in terms of a company’s success, but also for its continuing survival.
2. Truly understanding how and why you and your business are better than the competitions is essential to true business success.
3. Succinctly and effectively communicating your value proposition to customers and substantiating your claims will drive your business.

The Power of Positioning

The often-used phrases such as saving time and money are no longer enough to attract a potential buyer. Today’s effective salesperson must offer compelling claims and proof to substantiate them.

Differentiation in the context of business is what a company can hang its hat on that no other business can. For example, for some companies this is being the least expensive. Other companies credit themselves with being the first or the fastest. Whatever it is a business can use to stand out from the rest is called differentiation.

Differentiation in today’s over-crowded marketplace is a business imperative, not only in terms of a company’s success, but also for its continuing survival.

The advent of the Internet changed the business landscape forever. Typically, long established bricks-and-mortar businesses that spent years and millions of dollars building their brands ruled their industry segments -  perhaps rightfully so. Now, however, with new web-based businesses coming online virtually every day, many of these former stalwart business entities have seen their product/service offerings fall victim to mass commoditization and price wars.

Business-to-business companies in particular are finding themselves in these lowest-price battles every time they try to win client business. To me, this means the main players in the industry are not standing out from one another. They aren’t differentiating themselves effectively enough.

Take any service-based industry today, for example; IT services, business consulting, legal consultation, etc. To the potential client, most of the major players look the same. All offer the main table stake services and do little to truly differentiate themselves from their competitors. A business prospect is left with only one choice – defer to the best price.

As business owners and managers, it is our job to mitigate or avoid these price battles by delivering to the client enticing key messages that peak their interest and satisfy their concerns.

When crafted and delivered in an impactful manner, a business’s key messages will help it to differentiate itself from its competitors and attract customers.

In my nearly ten years of key message development, I have come across some really ornate positioning statements, key messages and value propositions that unnecessarily used far too many elaborate words to make a point. Here are some examples:

1. Brand X offers best-of-breed legal services to companies that need reliability and security so they can perform at the highest level.
2. Brand X delivers value to global organizations through integrated financial services designed to help reduce cost and increase efficiency.
3. Brand X provides its customers with state-of-the-art solar solutions to harness the power of the sun to lower costs.
4. We help individuals market their ideas through innovation and precision. Our services increase value and decrease inefficiency while driving differentiation in the marketplace.
5. Our powerful software is flexible, intuitive, easy-to-use and integrates seamlessly with your other tools. It is robust and scalable, and your organization can enjoy the benefits of our best-of-breed world-class offering.

Certainly, the name of the company behind these statements can easily be substituted for a competitor. What do these statements tell you about these companies and why you should engage in business with them? Nothing! That is the point. So many companies today fall into the trap of utilizing overused or meaningless words to describe what they do. It just doesn’t work.

Here are some examples of words to avoid at all costs in your positioning and messaging. They do absolutely nothing to truly differentiate you or your business:

Advanced

Best

Best-of-breed

Committed

Cutting-edge

Dedicated

Easy-to-use

Elaborate

Fastest

Flexible

Industry leading

Innovative

Leader

Leading

One-of-a-kind

Optimize

Partner

Proven

Quality

Quickest

Robust

Scalable

Solution

State-of-the-art

Unique

Unparalleled

Unsurpassed

Value

World-class

While this list is not a full representation of all of the trite words to stay away from, it should give you an idea of just how easy it can be to fall into the trap of developing key messages that will fall on deaf ears.

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  Jeffrey Summers Jun 17 2008 - 5:15 pm Log in to Reply

  No I can’t. Because you need to come up with them based on the specific value position of your individual restaurant. There are no “best words” only best value. Talk to your guests and find out what value they feel you are best at delivering and then you will see what values your positioning statement should be developed with.

  This is why testimonials are so valuable.

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  kaffeenjunkie Jun 17 2008 - 4:20 pm Log in to Reply

  Jeffery,
  I can comprehend your position.
  These words are presented to us over an over at every commercial break on television, magazine ads etc etc.

  Give us a sample of phrases that you consider workable.

  Kind Regards
  Keith
  http://www.fullcitycafe.com

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