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Where are you the leader of the pack?

 

A lesson in differentiation:  Part 1.

 

Finding a way to make your business stand out in some way and aligning your overall strategy accordingly is critical to long term success. If you don’t believe this, just take a moment to think about how many options are out there for someone who wants to buy whatever it is you have to sell. Take Rover, for example.  There must be hundreds of brands of dog food out there. So how might someone go about choosing from among all of the options? Is it likely that someone would go in and select a bag of dog food merely because it was the first bag they came to in the aisle? Most people buy products and services because they’ve been given a reason to buy, and typically that reason relates to a specific need or goal they would like to achieve. 

 

In today’s world of almost infinite choices for even the most mundane product, differentiation has become a tremendous challenge. But ultimately, people have to have a reason to buy from you instead of your competitor. That might be because you offer a lifetime guarantee that none of your competitors does, or because your dog food manufacturing company contributes a percentage of sales to the ASPCA.

 

A word of caution as you ponder how in the world you can come up with a way to set yourself apart from those pesky competitors forever nipping at your heels: it is very difficult to differentiate yourself by touting something that is or has become a base expectation of consumers of your product or service. For example, while having a broad ATM network might have been a competitive advantage and point of differentiation several decades ago, we’ve moved well past that in our demands for banking services. Which points out another fact about differentiation:  very few things last forever. Setting yourself apart in the minds of your customers and prospects requires staying tuned in to your competitors and your target audience.

 

Rover’s back with Part 2 on differentiation next month. Need help in the meantime? Email Rover.

 

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