February 3, 2010

HOW will you compete and WIN?

Thus far I have outlined the first two questions you have to answer in the BE DiFFERENT strategy creation process:
- HOW BIG do you want to be? - your growth and financial goals
- WHO do you want to SERVE? - the few customer groups you want to focus on and which will deliver your HOW BIG goals

In this blog, I will deal with the third critical question. The answer to the HOW to WIN question dries a stake in the ground in terms of how you will differentiate yourself from your competitors and beat them handily.

And it follows the WHO to SERVE question. You are looking for uniqueness relative to the customer groups you have chosen to target and not the market generally. This is very important. If you have chosen customer groups ‘A’ and ‘B’ for example, then you will be trying to differentiate yourself from others vying for the attention of these two groups specifically. You will be searching for ways of delivering what these two groups want in a more compelling and special way than anyone else attempting to do the same thing.

Answering the HOW to WIN question involves in-depth competitor analysis: Who are they; what are their strategies? How do they differentiate? What is their value proposition?

As a practical (but difficult) way of determining your DiFFERENT competitive position, I have talked in my book and my blogs about the only Statement. The only statement which in my view is the ultimate manifestation of a unique competitive position in the marketplace reads:
‘We are the only ones that…’

This is not a task for the faint-of-heart. Engage your team in the task. It involves looking at every nook and cranny in your organization for opportunities to separate yourselves from the pack - brand, service, product, product support, and how you leverage technology are some examples of where you can look.

Stay tuned for my next blog in this Series: How to build your Strategic Game Plan…. the elevator speech of your strategy!

Cheers, Roy

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Related Blogs
HOW BIG do you want to be?
WHO do you want to SERVE?
Look in every nook and cranny to BE DiFFERENT
Avoid Aspirations to BE DiFFERENT
Create the only statement

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Posted 2.3.10 at 08:53 am by Roy Osing | Read Comments (0) | Leave a Comment