“If you don’t have a competitive advantage, don’t compete!”
Jack Welch
Jaynie Smith, author of Creating Competitive Advantage: Give Customers a Reason to Choose You Over Your Competitors and Relevant Selling: Research Proves Customers Value More Than Just Pricerecently spoke to my groups. Here are the highlights of her books and presentation:
Competitive advantage is content that effectively differentiates one business from another, removing it from commodity status and conveying a unique and relevant value proposition. It goes by other names as well: unique selling position, distinguishing features, competitive edge, discriminators, or differentiators. It answers the customer’s key questions: “Why should I do business with you?” and, “What are you offering that the other guy doesn’t?” If you can articulate a clear, specific reply to those questions, then you have a competitive advantage that will build your customers’ confidence in your company and reduce perceived risk to them. More importantly to you, it minimizes price as an issue to them.
To qualify as a competitive advantage, it must meet these criteria:
Here is an example of a relevant competitive advantage statement:
“In 2014, more than 80% of our business was from repeat clients (twice the industry average), who retained us for more than 350 transactions.”
Some common mistakes that companies make concerning their competitive advantage include:
If you make these mistakes, then you won’t have a competitive advantage! Without a competitive advantage, price becomes your sole differentiator. Once you’re seen as a commodity supplier rather than a marketer, your margins will begin to shrink, and, soon you could find your business either being absorbed or disappearing completely.
Jaynie emphasizes:
© Smart Advantage, Show with Permission.
Check your website and marketing/sales material. Is your message significantly different than your competition? What relevant metrics do you have that prove it? Make sure that your customers know about your competitive advantage!
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