Shawn spoke about differentiators in business, using the examples of Listerine (kills germs) and Scope (great taste) to illustrate an example from Jack Trout’s book Differentiate or Die, about how they differentiated themselves from each other, and dominated their markets. In business, we have to differentiate, have to stand out, in order to survive. If you know what your differentiator is, great!
If you do not know, John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing suggests you identify your 10-20 best customers and ask them a series of questions, which are:
- Why did you hire us/shop from us in the first place?
- What do we do that others do not?
- What could we do that would thrill you?
- What is missing from our industry as a whole?
- What would you do if you operated a business like ours?
Your differentiator could be based on many things, such as your:
- Location
- History
- Equipment
- Background
- Experience
- Type of service
Anything that sets you apart from your competition.
Once you identify your differentiator, emphasize it, on your website, in your story, in your advertising, tell your networks, and tell us in your infomercials, so you can be separate from your competition, grow and dominate your market so your business can thrive and prosper.
Sources: <a title=\”Differentiate or Die\” href=\”http://www.troutandpartners.com/books.asp\”>Differentiate or Die</a> and <a title=\”Duct Tape Marketing\” href=\”http://www.ducttapemarketing.com/\”>Duct Tape Marketing</a>.