Among the back to basics ideas I am championing these days is getting the most out of your competitive advantage. Problem is most people don;t know where they stand against their competition.
Competitive advantage refers to the ability of an organization to draw upon its distinct properties to occupy a better market position than your competitors as far as clients are concerned. This idea originated with Michael Porter in, Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance.
Porter recognized that corporations and nations alike gained marketplace advantage from things like access to natural resources or a highly skilled labor force. Over time the conventional use of the term has come to indicate anything that makes you or your firm more desirable to your clients and customers.
What’s most important is your ability to accurately identify and exploit your advantage against those of your competitors. You cannot, however, profit from those advantages unless you know what they are and how they line up against the advantages possessed by your competitors.
This is a simple idea with profound implications… understanding your true competitive advantage allows you to position your organization in such a manner that competitors find it too difficult or costly to pursue your clients. Clever application can lead to an unassailable position in your niche of the market.
To do this you have to identify those features of your business that separate you from the competition in ways that clients deem valuable. This requires some careful analysis, because there are many things your clients believe are valuable, for you and your competitors… those traits you both share are NOT competitive advantages. Clients expect firms to work hard and be honest.
You’re not going to be able to point to honesty and hard work as competitive advantages.
You find your competitive advantage by assessing your traits and determining which ones imply value to your clients and present an advantage in the marketplace. Advantages could be as obvious as location, access to certain types of resources or years of tested experience. I have one client whose competitive advantage is control over a few blocks of warehouses in a small city next to a large urban market. To compete against him would take too much resource for a competitor to gain market dominance. And if they did, many larger competitors, wouldn’t find it big enough for them.
Another client’s competitive advantage is that the firm manages a rather complicated process that would be very difficult and costly for competitors to replicate. In fact my client concedes the “easy part of the business” to his competitors choosing to address the complexities of the one he dominates.
For example, my nickname “Duke” has been a tremendous competitive advantage, as has my uncommon given name, Lowell. “Duke” is a brand of sorts and it’s my job is to make sure that clients pair the name with valuable things like strategic planning or executive coaching.
Analyze your firm next to your competition. Ask what they do better than you and what they possess you don’t. Look for what is unique to you. Your list of traits will be long, but you can eliminate most of those items… many are of no real advantage and, if possible, you don’t want to compete head-to-head on them. Remember, you want to gain separation from the competition. Your aim is to occupy an unassailable market niche. Concede their advantages to your competitors; beat them on the unique value you bring to the market.
Talk to your clients to get inside their decisions. It may be your advantage to them
Is something you didn’t know and is not directly related to what you perceive as valuable. I once won a big contract because the client liked the fact that I was a white-water rafter (his brother was one, too).
Knowing and exploiting your competitive advantage goes hand in hand with relationship marketing. Market position is partly defined by how you are bound together by the highly personalized advantages you bring to the market. You are linked to clients (socially as well as commercially); these points of connection represent markets where your affiliation is an advantage. If this is a new idea to you, check out a webinar I did for NAR… it will help you build and maintain client relationships: https://realtor-org-commercial.webex.com/realtor-org-commercial/lsr.php?AT=pb&SP=EC&rID=41044467&rKey=6c1a68096ee744bc
You may be surprised at what works to your advantage. I once asked a client, who was a master sales professional in his own right, “How would you market me?” He asked me to recite my elevator speech signifying in which I cite my professionalism, wisdom and diligence. I was somewhat put back by his answer. “Everybody markets themselves in terms of those things. You know what you’re good at?” Sheepishly I had to admit that I didn’t. He told me. Since it’s a proprietary secret I’m not going to share it with you, but I changed my marketing strategy and won business.
A good way to find your distinct competitive advantages is to take a close look at your mission. Your mission should be a clear statement of the competitive advantage you bring to the market… a proclamation of what you do that places you in the same market as all your competitors, but also separates you from all of them in terms of the unique value you bring to your clients.
The lesson is clear: compete using aspects of you and your business that are advantageous to you and you alone. Make it hard, if not impossible for anyone to compete directly against you. Dominate your market niche and, if you can, stay out of others.
Competitive advantage refers to the ability of an organization to draw upon its distinct properties to occupy a better market position than your competitors as far as clients are concerned. This idea originated with Michael Porter in, Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance.
Porter recognized that corporations and nations alike gained marketplace advantage from things like access to natural resources or a highly skilled labor force. Over time the conventional use of the term has come to indicate anything that makes you or your firm more desirable to your clients and customers.
What’s most important is your ability to accurately identify and exploit your advantage against those of your competitors. You cannot, however, profit from those advantages unless you know what they are and how they line up against the advantages possessed by your competitors.
This is a simple idea with profound implications… understanding your true competitive advantage allows you to position your organization in such a manner that competitors find it too difficult or costly to pursue your clients. Clever application can lead to an unassailable position in your niche of the market.
To do this you have to identify those features of your business that separate you from the competition in ways that clients deem valuable. This requires some careful analysis, because there are many things your clients believe are valuable, for you and your competitors… those traits you both share are NOT competitive advantages. Clients expect firms to work hard and be honest.
You’re not going to be able to point to honesty and hard work as competitive advantages.
You find your competitive advantage by assessing your traits and determining which ones imply value to your clients and present an advantage in the marketplace. Advantages could be as obvious as location, access to certain types of resources or years of tested experience. I have one client whose competitive advantage is control over a few blocks of warehouses in a small city next to a large urban market. To compete against him would take too much resource for a competitor to gain market dominance. And if they did, many larger competitors, wouldn’t find it big enough for them.
Another client’s competitive advantage is that the firm manages a rather complicated process that would be very difficult and costly for competitors to replicate. In fact my client concedes the “easy part of the business” to his competitors choosing to address the complexities of the one he dominates.
For example, my nickname “Duke” has been a tremendous competitive advantage, as has my uncommon given name, Lowell. “Duke” is a brand of sorts and it’s my job is to make sure that clients pair the name with valuable things like strategic planning or executive coaching.
Analyze your firm next to your competition. Ask what they do better than you and what they possess you don’t. Look for what is unique to you. Your list of traits will be long, but you can eliminate most of those items… many are of no real advantage and, if possible, you don’t want to compete head-to-head on them. Remember, you want to gain separation from the competition. Your aim is to occupy an unassailable market niche. Concede their advantages to your competitors; beat them on the unique value you bring to the market.
Talk to your clients to get inside their decisions. It may be your advantage to them
Is something you didn’t know and is not directly related to what you perceive as valuable. I once won a big contract because the client liked the fact that I was a white-water rafter (his brother was one, too).
Knowing and exploiting your competitive advantage goes hand in hand with relationship marketing. Market position is partly defined by how you are bound together by the highly personalized advantages you bring to the market. You are linked to clients (socially as well as commercially); these points of connection represent markets where your affiliation is an advantage. If this is a new idea to you, check out a webinar I did for NAR… it will help you build and maintain client relationships: https://realtor-org-commercial.webex.com/realtor-org-commercial/lsr.php?AT=pb&SP=EC&rID=41044467&rKey=6c1a68096ee744bc
You may be surprised at what works to your advantage. I once asked a client, who was a master sales professional in his own right, “How would you market me?” He asked me to recite my elevator speech signifying in which I cite my professionalism, wisdom and diligence. I was somewhat put back by his answer. “Everybody markets themselves in terms of those things. You know what you’re good at?” Sheepishly I had to admit that I didn’t. He told me. Since it’s a proprietary secret I’m not going to share it with you, but I changed my marketing strategy and won business.
A good way to find your distinct competitive advantages is to take a close look at your mission. Your mission should be a clear statement of the competitive advantage you bring to the market… a proclamation of what you do that places you in the same market as all your competitors, but also separates you from all of them in terms of the unique value you bring to your clients.
The lesson is clear: compete using aspects of you and your business that are advantageous to you and you alone. Make it hard, if not impossible for anyone to compete directly against you. Dominate your market niche and, if you can, stay out of others.
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