Differentiate Your Business from Your Competition

Business is not as complicated as most make it. If you were to think of it as a mathematical story problem we would first need to define business. “All businesses are the same; they need to have, or create, a product or service, and sell it for a profit (or within budget) in the most productive and efficient way possible.”

What is it that you have or create? How much do you sell it for (or what is your budget)? What processes and procedures do you have, aka Plan, to increase productivity and efficiency? Now what is your business doing to stand out or differentiate from your competitors?

Another way to build this problem would be the following:

“The goal of business is to make a profit (P), and in order to make a profit we need to become more productive (P). Our productivity is contingent on the people (p) that we hire, the plan (p) that is place to execute, the processes (p) that are in place to follow, and the purpose (p) for doing what you do.”

Profitability = Productivity .

people ( plan + processes + purpose )7

The Fortune500 pay billions of dollars to external consultants; MBA students spend countless hours and a minimum of two years studying every aspect of business; less than 15% of companies create annual plans; and there are a plethora of books written each year on what you actually need to do to make more money. So what is the one thing that you need to do to sell more?

Be memorable, remain top of mind, and differentiate yourself from the competition in a way that customers value.

Regardless of how many digits make up your annual sales, the budget that you have set aside, or the stage that your business is in (start-up, growth, maintenance), consumers will choose to purchase from a company that aligns with what they value. Many business and marketing books talk about a unique selling proposition (USP) or a unique value proposition (UVP). The reality is that consumers want what they want, when they want it. Who are they going to choose to buy it from? Consumers see an average of between 500-3000 advertising messages each and every day. It is safe to say that they have a choice of who they want to purchase from.

It is easy to forget the simple foundation of why your business exists; the number of consumers who purchase the products or services that you have to offer. Successful companies continue to thrive by continually refining their understanding of what consumers’ value, and create and execute an effective communication plan/marketing plan that differentiates them from their competitors.

Sounds simple when broken down to the foundation, doesn’t it? But it’s amazing how many companies, sales people, and marketing agencies, both large and small, fail to do it.

Therefore your goal is try to create a campaign that does this, and does it well. If you are successful your businesses communications/marketing campaign will have the opportunity to succeed, while exceeding expectations. If you fail to do this, it’s very hard to succeed regardless of how hard you work or how much you spend on marketing. The idea of creating differentiation is very easy to understand, but extremely challenging to do well.

At the end of the day we all want results and we want to achieve those results in the most efficient and productive way possible. Connectionmark™ and our Progressive Impact Planning Workbook allows us to help empower our clients to be able to navigate their businesses. We take the following approach:

Low Effort & Low Results Assess (Listen)

High Effort & Low Results Strategize (Learn)

High Effort & High Results Execute (Collaborate)

Low Effort & High Results Optimize (Duplicate)

Are you achieving the results that you want? What is your business doing to Stand Out from your competition? Why do you think it is, or is not, working?