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Mar 11, 2024
6 min read

How to differentiate yourself from the competition

A few practical steps to differentiate your skillset and offer.

There are tons of options that your market has available

How do you differentiate your SKILL SET to set yourself apart when your market considers their options?

Here are a few ways:

Know what the market is doing right now so you can do the opposite (or improve)

The “doing” aspect:

An example:

This can come down to simple things like the first engagement with a prospect. Many in the sales industry are taught to cold pitch 100+ people every day to hit targets. Little do they know that they potentially burn their bridges and hurt their brand when they create a weak first impression. Consider how many cold DMs are ignored or cold emails left on unread or sent straight to the spam folder.

Knowing that this approach is common, not to mention less effective. It’s easier to take a different approach that will help you produce open conversations.

Another example could be the sales process. If your competitors are using their first meeting to present a pitch deck, and the purpose of the first meeting is to pitch the client, why not frame your meetings around problem-solving and helping your prospect identify what’s really going on? This is the start of creating a collaborative environment, and because you were more present and interested in the connection and conversation, this would be more effective and appealing to your market.

Do you see what’s happening here? You essentially have a finger on the pulse of what’s happening in your market, and you’re figuring out what’s not working as well as it should, and building a process that will draw people closer to the offer.

The key is to know the approach other professionals in your industry are taking. It’s not a guessing game. It’s based on facts.

A third example could be content. Most content out there is regurgitated bs. Why not look for original angles or even better ways of presenting content? Maybe it’s the way others teach inside their content that’s just straight out boring. Mediocre. Why not look for great stories and illustrations to highlight your points?

Do you see what’s happening? When the market is zigging, you’re zagging.

But how will you know if you don’t have that finger on the pulse of the market to know what’s happening? Start with that.

The “offering” aspect:

From an offering standpoint: Whatever looks and sounds the same is going to get lumped together. That means if your market has used a solution that sounds or looks very similar to yours, and they’ve been burnt in the past (that’s the important point here.) there’s going to be resistance.

You’ll be put into the same “bucket.”

You might have to create better online demonstration and work on the trust component so that your offers are considered. Remember that “The value of your offer will be enhanced or diminished by the value of your content.” So you can use your content to put your higher up the consideration list.

The personal experiences you have gone through that differentiate you

The experiences you go through can also be a differentiating factor. How? Well if you’ve been through the exact same thing your audience is going through and you let them know through your messaging inside your content, that will help those who resonate with your message develop a stronger attachment to you.

What does this mean? It means that certain people in your audience will feel a stronger connection to you because they feel that you understand exactly what they’re going through. You can also achieve this through proper research.

When you position your offering the right way, we’ve heard many say that “it feels like you’re in my head” — and this is because we can articulate what our market is going through better than they can describe it themselves with the content we release.

Specialization

This leads me to specialization. Instead of being a “generalist” — someone who does everything and anything — like a jack-of-all-trades, you start to specialize. You specialize by getting really good at that one component within a specific category.

For example:

Example 1. Being a general practitioner (doctor) vs. cardiologist.

Example 2. Business consultant vs. account executive (AE) trainer.

Notice how the category becomes clearer as to WHO you’re helping in these examples. You’re not necessarily choosing a niche but rather choosing a clear PROBLEM that multiple industries or people face. You can specialize using industry, market, or problem. The point here is that you’re going after a definable group of people who share the same problem.

Client services element of business

This could be your process or how you interact with your market. I gave an overlapping example above with the first interactions that a prospect might have with your company.

With client services, it really could a plethora of different components:

  • Your first interaction with a prospect. Are you killing off the sales process before it even begins?
  • Marketing. Does your content exceed standards and expectations?
  • Sales. Are you pitching too soon? Has value been communicated clearly?
  • Delivery. Does your onboarding process create a great experience? How satisfied are your clients?

Clearly communicated innovation

Some people innovate but never take the time to communicate their innovation with the market. They never share all the cool things they are building. Demonstrate your innovation, communicate, and document it in public.

The market cannot read your mind. They cannot possibly know the work you are doing unless you share it with them. Take that first step.

In this list, I did not mention having a good product or providing an excellent service specifically because firstly, these are expectations your market has for world-class players and companies, and secondly, deserves a full post in itself.

Onward and upward.

— Justin

Blog Author Justin Booysen

Justin Booysen