Competitve Advantage: Where To Find Yours

When you talk to most businesses in any niche they will always say they have a competitive price, a better product and the best service...but that is not really the key to winning business is it?

Being different to others and positioning yourself to capitalise on the difference in the key.

Standing out in your market is essential.

Price can often be used to attract people into your business but it does depend on the type of clientele you want to acquire. It can be used to great effect if you have a high perceived value proposition and you know your metrics so you can capture more revenue from them after they become clients.

Pricing is an area where most people fail because they don't really understand their own costs fully and they don't pay enough attention to lifetime value or playing the long game.

Your product should be of a high standard and everyone in business would say they have a quality product...or a product that represents good value.

The best thing is if you have a product that matches your prospects desired outcome, solves their problem, hopefully improves their status along the way and delivers a healthy profit to the business.

Service is not hard to deliver on but it can be if you don't pay attention and set up systems to ensure consistent results. Set the KPIs for performance on the service and monitor to ensure satisfaction. Utilise surveys and monitor feedback.

The most interesting part of your post were the words "uncomfortable state"

Utilizing and creating various levels of fear in the mind of your prospect or client can be a powerful motivator to gaining compliance.

You've got to remind people every now and then that they were, or still are, stuck and you provide the support and solutions to solve their complications.

You do need to be mindful of triggering negative responses that cause worry before the prospect becomes a client. It is OK to remind them of their personal pain and offer some outcomes that build their anticipation towards a positive outcome but you have to be careful to not shut them down completely and prevent them from taking a small step towards choosing you to help.

It can be a delicate balance that requires individual attention for each case.

It can be anything that customers will see as unique, and an advantage to them.

It can even be "Most expensive"....because it implies quality, and exclusivity. And....Bragging rights.

It can be one feature you have, that others don't.
It can be a process you use in manufacturing, that others don't use...or that customers aren't aware that they use.

For years I've been selling vacuums cleaners by saying that "They automatically adjust to any height of carpet". And they do. But it isn't a unique feature. But it feels unique to the customer.

Every time you list a benefit, as long as the customer isn't aware that the feature isn't unique...it's still unique to them.

A life insurance company says "Your rates are guaranteed never to go up, and your coverage is guaranteed never to go down"

All of that is true. It's also true for every other life insurance plan, using permanent insurance.

Anyway, a few thoughts.

I always find that those who try to find as much value in their services is possible is the way to being able to stand out.

Even if others may be selling SEO, being able to showcase how you project REAL results, faster SEO rankings, and also other marketing services can help you stand out

Having that kind of authority is also another way of standing out. Having a website may not be the only way to being able to show clients that you're the authority figure. Sometimes, you may really need to showcase your past success stories of other business owners.

Owner, manager, and staff making a difference versus the competition.

Are they well trained, pleasant to deal with, attractive and clean cut...?
Do they make frequent customers feel special because they are frequent customers?

Think about the pleasant receptionist at a law firm versus the person "put out to pasture"
in the receptionist position.

Or the screened, clean cut plumbers coming into a home versus the guy who might be a criminal
showing your wife or daughter his butt crack.

Do you like doing business with your company? Call, or have a friend call, and see how calls
are handled and questions answered... Is the phone, or other hardware or software, causing a
problem because of how it functions?

When I sell SEO, I say "If we work together, I will NOT work with anyone else in a competing sector"

Relationship with every client is surely a competitive advantage + smiley face

good article, congrats!