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Differentiation: What’s the problem?
UNDIFFERENTIATION IS HAPPENING!
COPYING IS RAMPANT!
You can’t be different if you’re in the COPY MODE.
Everybody copies everybody. Benchmarking is used as the ‘tool of innovation’.
It’s dishonest.
“Strategic convergence means that over time most firms end up in the same place. This is what happens if you all read the same books, watch the same Ted talks, hire the same consultants and use the same case studies. This is accelerated if you use benchmarking which involves watching what your competitors are doing and copying them. Emulation gets you to parity. But when everyone does it it gets you to strategic hell.” — Herman Singh LinkedIn Post
CLAPTRAP & NARCISSISM DOMINATE!
CLAPTRAP meaningless expressions still used to stake a competitive position:
BETTER, BEST, #1, LEADER, PREMIUM, MOST COMPELLING, MOST RELIABLE. GREAT TASTING. FIRST EVER, LOWEST COST, & MOST TRUSTED.
Examples…
“Canada’s largest and most reliable 5G network”
“America’s Most Popular Meal Kit.”
“The smartest way to get around.”
“The simplest path to customer delight.”
ASPIRATIONS INUNDATE!
“We’re in business to save our home planet.”
“To inspire humanity – both in the air and on the ground.”
“Our mission is to make the world happier and healthier
“Champions of Customer Service”
Differentiation: What’s the solution?
“THE ONLY STATEMENT” — “WE ARE THE ONLY ONES WHO…”
- The ONLY Statement answers the question “Why should I do business with you and not your competitors?”. It is a specific expression of what YOU promise THEM and clears the roadway of narcissists, aspirationalists and CLAPTRAP artists.
- The ONLY Statement is binary. It either exists or it doesn’t unlike CLAPTRAP and ASPIRATIONS.
- The ONLY Statement is measurable unlike CLAPTRAP and ASPIRATIONS.
- The ONLY Statement is about THEM not YOU!. It speaks to someone else and what they need from you. It’s NOT about the value and benefits YOU think you deliver.
- The ONLY Statement is NOT a tactic. It’s an expression of strategy. It exists to serve a strategic purpose and must have a Strategic Game Plan to provide context for it.
The ONLY Statement Process
#1. Declare your growth goals — HOW BIG do you want to be?
#2. Determine the Customer Groups that have the potential to deliver your growth goals — WHO do you intend to SERVE? Focus on the critical few Groups; avoid mass market thinking here.
#3. Determine what the WHO CARES about, not what they “need”. The “need” space typically has many competitors and prices are forced downward making it tough to maintain healthy margins. Definitely a place you don’t want to hang out.
If, on the other hand, you are able to discover what your WHO CRAVES, DESIRES, COVETS AND LUSTS FOR, you will find few competitors and the ability to charge higher prices because people are generally willing to pay more to satisfy their emotional appetites.
Have a conversation with your WHO to uncover what they CRAVE. “What keeps you awake at night?” to a business is a great way to start the discovery process.
On the consumer side, gentle probes around their lifestyle will yield the desired result.
#4. Draft your ONLY Statement—“We are the ONLY ones who…”—by either matching your existing skills and competencies with the CRAVINGS of the WHO or by defining what you NEED TO BE in order to satisfy their CRAVINGS.
To the latter point, you may have to reframe your business to be able to deliver what your WHO CRAVES because you’re currently devoid of the required capabilities to do it.
“Lawn Care Services Co. is the ONLY service partner who delivers personalized home care services to homeowners.”
“Marine Co is the ONLY complete service partner committed to delivering solutions to grow a boat dealer’s business.”
#5. “Unpack” your ONLY Statement. Provide more detail on some of the words and phrases contained in your ONLY to enhance the understanding of exactly what it means.
This granularity is critical in order to avoid the CLAPTRAP syndrome and be able to communicate it to your WHO in clear concise terms.
In the Lawn Care Services ONLY Statement, the unpacking exercise could look like this:
- By “service partner” we mean…
- By “personalized” we mean…
- By “home care services” we mean…
- By “homeowners” we mean…
Don’t be afraid to provide too much unpacking information. The more detail you provide the clearer it is and the easier it is to communicate to your employees and your WHO.
#6. Treat your ONLY as a draft. Your ONLY Statement is never done, it’s always a draft and will need to be tweaked when circumstances change — competitor moves, customer behavior, economic fluctuations, political policies.
Be prepared to shift ONLY emphasis when you spot changes.
#7. Test your ONLY. Before patting yourself on the back for the great work you’ve done, TEST your ONLY Statement to make sure it accurately addresses what your WHO CRAVES. Talk to a selected number of the WHO directly and discuss it with your frontline employees.
If it’s not relevant to what your WHO CRAVES, keep working on it until it works for THEM.
There is so much clutter out there on “The Brand Promise” and “Unique Selling Propositions” that do little but propagate the differentiation problem.
They don’t establish differentiation because they communicate what YOU think about YOU.
Breakaway to The ONLY Statement. Why? Because I invented it and it took a startup to A BILLION IN SALES!
Related: How Being Boring Will Make You Extremely Successful