Companies cannot stand out from the competition with vague claims
One Simple Question
We have asked many companies the question of “How are you different from your competitors?”
The answer usually, goes along the lines of:
We make high quality products
We provide great service
Our staff is very knowledgeable
We’ve been in business for X years
We offer a wide range of services
We go above and beyond for our customers
We have great references available
The Downside
On the surface, these are all valid answers and may very well be true. However, most competitors are providing very similar responses. As a buyer, it is quite difficult to assess which one is correct.
Additionally, multiple players may indeed be correct and provide “great service”, for example. How is a buyer, then, supposed to determine which one has “better” service?
Be Specific
The simplest solution to this dilemma is to make all claims specific and tangible.
Instead of “great customer service”, one can say “24/7 availability”, or “all calls returned within the hour” or “get a dedicated account rep”.
Similarly, instead of “very knowledgeable”, say “extensive experience dealing with issues A, B and C”.
Before proceeding with these changes, though, a competitive assessment is needed to determine if these claims are not already the industry standard or are not claimed by other players.
Short-Lived vs Long-Term Differentiation
In reality, while a tangible claim is definitely better than a vague one, the examples above still represent superficial forms of differentiation, that can be found quite easily by multiple competitors.
In the long term, a better approach to stand out would be to analyze all relevant product and service attributes and identify, through conjoint analysis, which ones can add the greatest value as a result of differentiation. Then, the company can determine how to improve that attribute to make it unique and distinct to anything available in the market.
In any case, while most companies have a long way to go to forge a true differentiation strategy, it is a worthy exercise that can lead to a strong market position and consistent revenue growth.
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