How to Gain a Competitive Advantage

We’re living in a time of fast and short-lived information. Everything is easily comparable on the Internet. Therefore, it is so important for companies to differentiate themselves from their competitors in order create a clear picture of the business in their clients’ and potential clients’ minds. Make them believe what you want them to believe. Read this article and learn more!

Keeping Up with the Competition 

You’re competing with the local community, region, country, or world. Why should someone listen to you? Why does your business exist? What’s different about you, your product or service, and/or your company? This thought process should be grounded in your competitive advantage. It may be your product or service outperforms the competition. It may be your offering is the lowest price. It could be the reliability of your service or business. There is something that sets you apart from your competition. This is something which needs to be thought about intently and clarified. If you can’t find something that sets you apart from your competition, success will be tough.

Be the Difference 

Your difference, or competitive advantage, may be you! Maybe you pride yourself on being the best at what you do bar none. Someone out there is the best and they should let people know upfront that they are. If this is the case for you and your business, it becomes a part of your branding process, making sure the prospect understands your capabilities and commitment to their success.

Be More Memorable

Branding is about creating a logo, a process, a methodology, and/or all of these to give a clear and consistent portrayal of what you want prospects/clients to think and believe about your business. It’s something which communicates the same meaning, one you create and manage, each and every time someone sees, hears, or reads your messages. This is so they come away with the same understanding of who you are and why you exist every time.

It’s not just about cool logos or web sites. It’s about creating a story or image you want people to understand about you and your business. When you see a picture of an apple with a bite out of it, what do you think of? Apple. You see a huge sign with this image on it, you know precisely what it means without there being one word of text on the sign. This is branding, but it’s also part of the marketing process. Apple has spent millions in marketing to create this branding image and communicating a myriad of quality benefits to those who see it. Everything you go to market with should say the same branding message. People should come away with the same message each and every time you put something out for the public to see; business cards, voice mail, receptionists, holding music, letters, web sites, direct mail, email, whatever it is.

Hopefully you, or your company if this is the case, has already done a more than acceptable job of branding and marketing for you. If not, then I would suggest that you get a good book, training, or hire someone to build your brand and market it for you or your company! Now let’s get back to selling!

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