BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT FOR SMES Differentiation
DIFFERENTIATION – the thought of it used to make me go pale and break out into cold sweats before a school maths exam!
The same was so for Integration and quadratic equations, but in the modern business world, differentiation has little to do with mathematics. Unless that is, you’re talking about the numbers on your profit and loss account, and in that case, differentiation has EVERYTHING to do with maths – your P&L depends on it!
WE HAVE MOVED ON Traditionally many people have thought they could differentiate themselves on attributes of price, quality and delivery, but in the Web 2.0 age, these have become “hygiene” factors – if you’ve not got these right, then you’re out of the game from the start. Forget “feature” selling too – the game has moved on massively, and continues to move on...
UNDERSTANDING DIFFERENTIATION –WHAT IT IS NOT Many companies get differentiation wrong and some of the most common mistakes are...
• They don’t have any differentiation but think they do
• They have a source of clear differentiation but don’t know what it is, so they lower prices
• They know their source of differentiation but don’t tell clients about it
• They mistake strengths for differentiation
• They don’t concentrate on differentiation when making strategic and operational decisions - and what it is
DIFFERENTIATION IS ALL ABOUT CREATING A COMPELLING CUSTOMER PROPOSITION THAT CAPTURES THEIR EMOTIONS TO WANT TO BUY FROM YOU, AND NOT YOUR COMPETITORS.
Customers make decisions emotively in their “old brain” and then justify them logically in their old brain. If you don’t believe this, try thinking back to a major personal buying decision you made recently.
To truly achieve differentiation, you must create a position of value for the customer that is valuable, rare and difficult/costly to imitate. It’s up to you how you do it – but do it you must.
YOUR PEOPLE AND YOUR CUSTOMERS Almost always, your people are those who can create quick and major differentiation for you in the way they go about delivering your product and/or service – put some personality and innovation into it and unshackle them from the formal and cold confines of traditional business. Try analysing each customer’s “touchpoint” to identify the following opportunities:
• To make the process more lean & automated
• To get more intimate with customers • To better ease customer worries • To pre-empt worries by giving customers all the information they need before they ask for it
• To build confidence and excitement in the customer
• To add personality & remarkability.
MAKING DIFFERENTIATIONWORK FOR YOU
When you achieve true differentiation, you become liberated from pure price-based competition and you increase your profit margins. Then you’ve got to communicate the hell out of it in all of your sales propositions.
DIFFERENTIATE OR DIE – THE CHOICE IS YOURS!
Paul Luen Martek Marine Ltd
www.martek-marine.com
www.windenergynetwork.co.uk
25
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92