Being Different Trumps Being Better Than The Competition

It’s a myth that being better than the competition is the way to success, bigger profits and bigger opportunities.

Quite often I’m invited to strategic marketing planning sessions where executive leadership, marketing and sales personnel will sit around the table figuring out how to be better than the competition.

I can say without hesitation that being better is a waste of time, being different is where the money and competitive advantage is at.

Creating a better service, product or organization is hard and temporary. It’s a lousy advantage that can be toppled tomorrow by a competitor with a lower price, more convenient location, shinier award, newer technology, fancier presentation, or bigger community.

During these strategic marketing planning sessions I challenge everyone to think and approach marketing in a different way and propose that it’s not enough to be the best.

What your organization should be doing is figuring out how we can simply be different than the competition.

In my opinion the best way to create a difference that can’t be easily copied and stand out from the competition is to:

• create your own special way to treat customers,
• create an experience that’s unique, or
• create a totally new and convenient way for people to get a result.

Your company could be the one who always sends handwritten notes after an engagement. Your company could be the one who sends certificates after engaging a client thanking them for the completion of a coaching program or the project. These things are about being different, not being better.

Note: Creating and baking a difference into the very DNA and strategy of your organization trumps every competitor that makes it a feature or tactic of theirs.