Better VS Different

When it comes to your customers, when they think of you compared to your competitors, your alternatives, it’s better to be different than better every time. That’s not intuitive, but I found that to be so true and a powerful tool for differentiation and profit growth in your business. Let me explain to you why I think that.

Play Bigger
There’s a guy named Chris Lockhead. He’s an author and a speaker. I’m a real fan of his work. His topic is category design and essentially it’s about how companies can use their definition of what they do and position themselves to be unique to other solutions for your client. So unique that they are a category of one. Doing that greatly reduces the commoditization effect and allows you to get the true value for what it is that you are providing to your prospects. First of all, I encourage you to check out Chris’s work. It’s really good. It’s so fresh and different. But I want to share a couple of thoughts for you on how you can apply this in your business. A lot of it has to do with positioning.

True Story
So I talk about company’s true stories a lot. I work a lot on that with my clients. That is essentially the idea that if you have clarity on exactly what it is that you do, why your company exists, who exactly it is there for, who is it that you help and what does that help look like? What’s the benefit to that target group. If you know that first and can apply that to your business? That drives a lot of things in your marketing program. But it allows you to define your value in that unique market, that is what you do…the way you do it. It helps you avoid the race to the bottom on specifications and other measures where you’re being put on a chart with three other competitors and there’s a difference of a few degrees between each of your values. Again, you become a commodity even if you aren’t. So the more you can define what you do in the unique way that you do it and make that who you are, the better chance you have to avoid that.

Home Field Advantage
Essentially you become home field, right? You are playing in your home field every time. If you’re successful and you find the people that need this thing that you do in a very unique way, then everyone else who’s trying to compete with you has to try to compete in that language, in that way.

Yes, sometimes it means that you have to look harder to find the specific, businesses that you help in such a special way. But that’s the magic of marketing. Rather than spend your effort trying to convince a bunch of businesses that you’re a solution for them, when you aren’t, spend your effort upfront, finding the people, the businesses that have the characteristics that you know will benefit from that unique thing that you do. And then when you share that with them, you’re already starting out in this place of uniqueness and everyone else has to play catch up.

So I encourage you to check out Chris Lockhead’s work. I think that would be something that you benefit from. And also find your special market and be out there. Go out there and be a leader.