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Home Running A Business Why Us? How do You Differentiate Yourself From Your Competition?
If you can’t answer the question, “Why us?” everything becomes based on price.
I’ve mentioned this before, I grew up in a small business. We sold industrial supplies, primarily bolts and nuts. I’m not sure there is any more of a commodity business than that. We worked very hard to leverage expertise to help our customers make their purchasing decisions based upon something other than just how much our products cost. Most of the time we were successful.
A few years back I attended a workshop based upon the book, Creating Competitive Advantage: Giving Customers a Reason to Choose You Over Your Competitors, by Jaynie L. Smith and William G. Flanagan. I enjoyed their common sense approach and agree with the assertion, “We decide to have competitive advantages—they don’t just happen.”
A great example of this mindset is illustrated in three questions that Jet Blue asks themselves every day:
Most of us are very proud of the products we sell, but our products are not a competitive advantage. It’s not the product, it’s the deliverables. In fact, a real competitive advantage isn’t something itemized on the invoice. Let me explain. My dad was successful at turning a bolt and nut business into something other than a commodity business because he did a couple of things very well:
Although these four things might not sound like very much, Smith and Flanagan outline some criteria for a legitimate competitive advantage, judge for yourself if some of the above mentioned practices fit into their criteria:
There were a number of things my Dad did that fit into the category of competitive advantage, he just never said much about it. He hoped his customers would notice, which some of them did. If you have a real competitive advantage and you don’t tell anyone about it, it doesn’t really do you much good. As you look at your product or service, take some time to:
Like most things, this sounds pretty straightforward. Although it might not be rocket science, the number of businesses that take the time to strategically look at what sets them apart from the crowd is very small. What are you going to do to set yourself apart?
Small business evangelist and veteran of over 30 years in the trenches of Main Street business, Ty makes small business financing and trends accessible in common sense language devoid of the jargon.
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