I was at a networking event last night and was talking with two business owners when one asked the other, “So what’s different about your business.” The questionee seemed like a sentient, well-spoken man prior to this question, but as he began to respond he started to go off on a canned sales pitch that had nothing to do with why his business was different.
Chances are that there is something about this gentleman’s business that actually is differnent from his competitors, but he just had never given it much thought and found it easier to fall back on the familiar. And I completely understand that it’s difficult to pinpoint those one or two things that set you apart, so if you have problems identifying these attributes, start simple and ask yourself this question: What isn’t screwed up about my company that is screwed up with my competitors?
We can call the answer to this question your company’s Unique Blissfunction (as opposed to dysfunction), and often it’s relatively easy to answer and gives you the basis of differentiating yourself. Maybe you don’t charge for initial consultations and everybody else does. Maybe you provide a free extended warranty that nobody else can touch. Maybe you have a new way of processing documents that reduces how many times each document is handled and therefore reduces errors (which increases value). Whatever the attribute, find it and start using it in your sales pitch.
And what if you don’t have a Unique Blissfunction? Then figure out what’s screwed up with some major aspect of how your industry does business and fix it so that you can create a Unique Blissfunction.
