Be Different or be dead

July 18, 2016

15 proven ways to have a real competitive advantage

Successful competitive differentiation doesn’t happen at the 50,000’ level; separating yourself from your competition in the clouds is aspirational at best.

15 proven ways to have a real competitive advantage.

It makes you feel good to have the objective, but little happens to turn it into a reality.

Why is successful competitive differentiation difficult to achieve?

Attention and focus need to be applied to the detailed specific performance drivers of differentiation.

The aspiration is easy, but if you don’t bear down on the detailed elements that in harmony produce a believable differentiation claim, you will merely have a “wish and a prayer” that will never happen.

These action items will help you to successfully differentiate you from your competition.

▪️Create a business plan with a strategic context that defines what your competitive claim should look like and the organizational capabilities that should be given priority.

▪️Create your ONLY statement to answer the question “Why should I do business with you and not your competitors?”

▪️Avoid perfection; trying to get your competitive claim exactly right. Pour your soul into execution; learn and refine it as you go.

▪️Have a direct line of sight between all employees and your differentiation strategy to ensure each individual knows their role in execution.

▪️Repel mass anything. The herd believes in mass marketing. Sustainable differentiation is the result of focusing on individuals, not mass markets.

▪️Go for premium prices. Provide remarkable value to command higher prices than your competition. Low prices = low value = commodity = no differentiation.

▪️Resist copying. Copying “the best” is a non-starter for differentiation. You may get operational improvements from copying but you will never stand-out strategically.

▪️Align internal systems. Internal infrastructure - policies, compensation, service strategy, reward programs, IT, web and social media - must all work together to deliver your differentiation claim. Inconsistency in delivery renders your claim not believable.

▪️Cultivate leaders ask “How can I help?” rather than “Do this!” as the vehicle to clear roadblocks and enable execution. Successful differentiation = servant leadership. Period.

▪️Shed the impulse to control everything. Empower people; trust customers (eliminate policies intended to control the dishonest few).

▪️Surprise customers with what they don’t expect. This shows you care about delighting them and is a bold move to move away from the commoners.

▪️Think tops down; let growth targets drive the essence of your differentiation strategy. The more bold the growth goals, the more aggressive and creative your strategy.

▪️Cast off the notion of customer service in favour of serving them. You service computers; you serve people. Subordinating your organization to the client leads treating your customers in an exemplary way which cannot be easily replicated by competitors.

▪️Hire for goosebumps. Recruit people based on their proven ability and innate desire to serve others. Their stories are heartwarming and emotional and give you goosebumps. Goosebumps = a human organization = competitive advantage.

▪️Renew your strategy annually. Successful differentiation today is quickly erased by the actions of an aggressive competitor.

If you are diligent in creating an organization capable of implementing this action plan, you will not only successfully differentiate yourself today, you will also sustain in for the long term.

It’s not rocket science; just hard work.

Cheers,
Roy
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• Posted 7.18.16 at 05:01 am by Roy Osing
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