Why Should I Do Business With

YOU?

Your Competitive Advantage?

How do you answer the question:

"Why should I do business with you and not your competitor?"

This is the killer question for all marketers.

Your Competitive Advantage?

In today's noisy world with every organization shouting out why they should be chosen, the marketer needs to determine how to get their products, services and solutions

noticed in the milieu.

They need to claim a competitive position that is unique and one that

stands-out in the crowd.

Your Competitive Advantage?

The tendency among most marketers is to go

on a copying rampage where the priority is on replicating in some way what someone

else is doing.

Other players are benchmarked on some

capability and the copycat strategy unfolds.

Your Competitive Advantage?

Copying doesn't create uniqueness and differences; it proliferates

sameness. In fact it dilutes any marginal differences among organizations that might exist and

renders them all as look-alikes. And it lowers the bar for each competitor to

achieve.

Your Competitive Advantage?

Marketers also love to use vague helium-filled attributes and superlatives as the way of

claiming how they are different. "We provide excellent customer service"; "We exceed

customer expectations"; "We offer the best value"; "We provide the best value for money"

have been overused to the point where they are meaningless.

All they do is add to the message clutter.

Your Competitive Advantage?

A credible competitive claim needs to be simple and specific in terms of how an organization is different from

the competitive herd. It needs to address something a customer

cares about and it needs to be delivered consistently 24X7.

Your Competitive Advantage?

Jerry Garcia, former leader of the legendary rock band The Grateful Dead, nailed it:

"You don't want merely to be the best of the best.

You want to be

the

only ones who do what you do."

Your Competitive Advantage?

My ‘ONLY' statement is the practical way to do it.

"We are the only ones that...." is the claim that will cut through the clutter and

make it clear why you should be chosen among your competitors.

Your Competitive Advantage?

My 5 ONLY rules:

1.The only statement must speak to the

experiences and value you create for people not the products or services you want

to push.

2. It must be brief. It's a sound bite. If it consumes a page it isn't a viable claim.

Your Competitive Advantage?

My 5 ONLY rules:

3. Talk to the specific customer group you are targeting not the market in

general.

4. Test your only statement with customers and employees to ensure it is relevant and

true.

Your Competitive Advantage?

My 5 ONLY rules:

5. Consider your ONLY statement a draft. You won't likely get it right the first

time, so take your almost-there only statement and start working with it.

Refine it as you go.

And stay alert for a competitive move when they see what you are up to.

Your Competitive Advantage?

Creating your ONLY Statement is extremely tough work.

But it is necessary if you want to step away from the crowd.

An Invitation

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