Don’t Ignore Your Greatest Competitive Advantage

By David Saxe – Certified Ownership Thinking and EOS Implementer

A competitive advantage has two qualities. First, it is something you offer that your competitors do not offer to the same degree.  It is clear that you have an advantage in that area. Domino’s Pizza developed a competitive advantage based on speed of home delivery that no competitor was able to match.  With that advantage, Domino’s went on to build 7000 outlets, making its founder, Tom Monahan, a billionaire in the process.

Second, a competitive advantage is something that customers recognize, appreciate and are willing to pay a premium to enjoy.  In every case, it is the customer who decides if your competitive advantage is important to him or her.  The customer will tell you if your offering is superior to your competitors in some way by buying your products or services in sufficient quantity to enable you to profit and grow.

Define Your Core Focus:

In order to be able to deliver the best product in the most advantageous way, your leadership team needs to take the time to identify your purpose/cause/passion for being in business.  What was the main reason for starting your business.  Once you have defined the purpose/cause/passion, you should then zero in on your real niche.  What is the need you are filling for your customers.  What is the problem you are solving for them.  Once you’ve been able to define these two items, you then need to convey this information your customers.  If they don’t know what product or service you provide and how well you deliver it, how can they be expected to buy from you.

Define Your Target Market:

There are several exercises that your leadership team should undertake in order to identify “the list,” which is a list of your target customers.  To begin to identify your list, you should spend the time to define these three areas:

The demographics of you ideal customer – who are they, type of business, number of people

The geographics of your ideal customer – where are they, where are we looking (state, country)

The psychographics of your ideal customer – how they think, what do they value

Defining each of these characteristics will help to identify exactly who your target market is.  From those characteristics, prepare a list of potential customers, by name and contact person, that your marketing and sales departments can now target.  Make sure you don’t waste time courting any potential customer that does not fit the above target.  You can now focus on only those potential customers that need and want our product.

Your Three Uniques:

Your area of superiority is defined as an area of performance where your product or service is superior to that of your competitors.  This performance difference is significant enough that your customer will buy it, and even pay you more for it.  In what way does your product perform better, in terms of getting results that your customer cares about, than your competitors?  How could you improve the performance of your products or services in some meaningful way?

Take the time to define the three things your company does better than any other company.  If you try to promote only one unique aspect of your company, there will be other companies who can make the same claim.  If you promote two things you do better than anyone else, there may still be companies who can make the same claim.  However, if you define three ways you serve your customers better than any other company, it is unlikely that any other company can make those same claims in those three areas.  These three “uniques” become your mantra that you promote in all of your promotional material, web site and internally with your employees.

Develop Your Proven Process:

Your unique selling proposition is something that you and only you offer to your customers, and is something that they really care about.  No one else does as well as you do in this area. No one else achieves the same benefit or result. What is your unique selling proposition? What could it be?

This is sometimes called your Value Proposition or Your Proven Process.  Whatever you call it, from the information described above, you are now ready to define the way you do business with your customers.  Create up to seven steps mapping out the experience you will create for your customers from the first meeting through the years of ongoing follow up.  This conveys how you will satisfy your customers and deliver exactly what they are looking for.  Once your Proven Process is defined, design a one page graphic, showing each step separately, with bullet points, print it and laminate it.  Hand it out at every presentation, first meetings, web site and in advertising campaigns.  This will increase your value in the minds of your customers and increase their confidence that they will be in good hands if they buy your products.

Define Your Terms:

A product or service that is “better” is a product that does what the customer purchases it to do in a way that is superior to any competitor.  Apply this to your company.  Are your products and services “better” in the view of your customers than anything else that is available to them?
The quality of being “faster” means that your product or service satisfies the “need for speed.”  It achieves the result or benefit promised by your product faster than your competitor does.  It is sold, serviced, or delivered faster. Domino’s Pizza built its success around its reputation for speedy delivery.

If your product is “cheaper,” it means that you offer the same value at a lower cost.  You may offer better terms, or even greater value, at the same cost.  Perhaps you offer superior service included in the same price that your competitors charge.  Perhaps you offer additional benefits that make your product or service appear cheaper to your competitor.  As a result, your customer feels that he or she would be better off buying from you rather than from someone else.

If your product is “easier,” this means that your customer can acquire or use it with greater convenience.  The customer gets the results and benefits you offer with less effort.  Perhaps the customer experience is smoother and more enjoyable as well.  In buying from you, there are “no hassles.”  The customer perceives this as a value that is worth paying for.

The Keys To Success

Every product or service, in order to survive in a competitive market, must have an area of excellence, an area of superiority and a proven process. The development and maintenance of these competitive advantages is the primary job of your leadership team.

You should always be prepared to answer the customer’s primary question, “Give me one reason why I should buy from you rather than from someone else.”

Whatever your answer is to that question, you should build all your marketing and sales efforts around it. Your answer is the key to business success.

David Saxe, BBA, CPA, CA, CBC

Enhancing Business Performance

Five Behaviors of a Cohesive Team™ Accredited Facilitator

Certified Ownership Thinking™ Facilitator

Base Camp Trained EOS implementer

David has over 40 years of hands on business and business related work experience and is the Senior Associate at Next Level Business Planning.  The firm provides leadership teams with the tools, training and skills to build high performance, productive and cohesive teams within business organizations.  David has a passion for working with leadership teams to help create laser-focused vision, alignment, traction and execution by focusing on how to overcome challenges and set goals.   He also helps to create a culture of engagement and accountability to maximize efficiency and profitability by training employees to think and act like owners.  David can be reached at david@nextlevelbusinessplanning.com.