So, whether you’re a one-man band or a multi-million pound business, the ability to differentiate yourself from the competition can be one of your greatest assets. But with an estimated five million businesses in the UK alone, that might not be as easy as it sometimes sounds or seems.
And the truth is that whatever you’re doing or planning on doing, the chances are someone else is probably already doing it. So, how do you make sure that customers choose your business and not somebody else’s?
First of all, you need to identify your unique selling point, a USP that makes you seem different from your competitors. The best way to do that is to imagine that you’ve decided to buy into an existing very well established burger franchise.
Now buying a franchise gives you some advantages, an established brand, proven processes, predictable margins but it also means that the burgers you sell will be exactly the same as the ones down the road. Your restaurant interior will be strictly controlled and identical to the one down the road, and even your prices will be identical to the one down the road. In fact, your new business is gonna be practically identical to 10 others within a 20 mile radius of yours.
It sounds like on this occasion, there’s just no USP, but there is. There is always a USP! In this example. your fast food restaurant is the only one sitting on that corner on the roundabout. So in this case, it’s your location that is your USP and that one fact could be enough to ensure your business’ success.
Now, I chose quite an extreme example there because the really good news is that most businesses have multiple USPs, not just their location. Some common USPs are generally things like your products, your pricing, your staff, your opening hours, your branding. I mean, the list is almost endless, but the key is to identify your USPs and then promote those to your customers so that it’s really clear to them what you are offering is unique and it’s only available from you.
Another way to differentiate yourself from competitors is to deliver exceptional customer experience. And when I say exceptional, it must be exceptional. This can be done in a lot of different ways and can include elements like how quickly you respond to customer requests, like answering the phone, for example, or how fast you are at getting back on emails, or how quick you are to dispatch orders.
You could even build your speed of response into your marketing strategy. For example, you’ll see some companies always promise next day delivery guaranteed, or they might say like a 24-7 helpline in adverts and on their websites. So as part of your unique customer service offer, you can also build in ways to reward and thank customers with things like exclusive offers or loyalty bonuses.
And these tactics can also help to build repeat business because buyers want to cash in on their bonuses. If you think about supermarkets for example, they have pioneered this approach beautifully and it continues to be ever effective.
Now, the way that you look after your customers is very important for building long-term loyalty. But you have to deliver that great level of customer service consistently and over time, getting a reputation for delivering great service takes time to build and it might take time to build but it can be destroyed in a heartbeat.
Another way to differentiate yourself from the competition could be by innovating and evolving. If we go back to that example of the fast food restaurant, I can think of a chain that has more than, well, almost 1500 locations in the UK. I’m not gonna say the name but you can probably guess which one I’m talking about, right? Now, even though that business is a huge business, it still has competition from other chains and you can class its competition as being smaller independents as well.
So, despite their size, it’s still important that they maintain points of difference from their competitors and they have their own USPs. Think about how they’ve changed their operations over time. When I was growing up, their menu was very different to the ones that you see today. The kids’ meals had plastic toys in them, you had to go in the store to order your food.
Today, that chain has a massively revised menu, veggie options, salads, fruits, desserts for fruit, and they’ve really embraced technology. You can now order food via an app or use a touchscreen at the front of the store to order in the restaurant and it’s all of these changes together with offering limited edition burgers and seasonal menus, and it helps them continue to offer USPs that both attract new customers and retain the existing ones.
Now, another thing I want you to consider when you’re developing your USPs, and this one is really well suited to smaller businesses, is to specialise. Develop a business that is focused on a very specific area of the market, so instead of trying to sell to a huge market with loads of competitors, you’re operating in a smaller, more specialist, sometimes termed niche markets, but that one will not have as many competitors either.
There are some fantastic, really specialist companies out there who have consciously decided to differentiate themselves from the competition by taking a slightly different path and occupying a space which was less crowded.
It can be a really fantastic strategy, but the key to successful specialization is firstly, make sure that the market for your goods is still big enough, this can be tricky if you’re the first one in that market. Then secondly, make sure that when people are looking for you, they can easily find you. You need to be very easily identifiable.
So in a really similar way, if you think about estate agents, for example, there are some small ones that sell properties all in certain price ranges whilst there are others that specialise in a specific area of the market, for example, high-end properties or waterside properties or first time buyer properties.
This specialisation within a much larger marketplace that can really, really work well for their clients, whether they’re buying or selling, and also gives them a deeper understanding of that marketplace, which is what is enabling them to be differentiated from their competitors. If you think about car dealers, holiday letting companies, car rental companies, you’ll find examples of specialisation working really, really well across them all.
So remember when it comes to launching, building and maintaining a business, you must give your customers a reason to choose you. Differentiation will be the most important reason for success. Good luck!