One of the greatest risks to your success in business is being perceived as a commodity. And with more and more competition regardless of whatever your product or service is, you run a real risk of becoming just another “me too” in your market.
It becomes impossible to differentiate your business from every other in your field. Your margins get hammered as prospects look for the lowest price and it becomes harder and harder for you to turn a profit.
So why do so many businesses end up looking like commodities and if you’re heading this way, what can you do about it.
There are a number of reasons.
First, businesses often completely fail to understand the real value they provide to their clients. They think they know, but we found in over 10 years of coaching business owners, they’re usually far off the mark.
They think they’re providing value because they “have integrity”, “work hard for you”, have ISO 9001 certification and all sorts of other process driven stuff.
And while this may be true, today, these attributes are a given. Clients expect this – but if everyone is the same, where’s the differentiation? What would make a prospect choose you over everyone else who seemingly provide exactly the same services? And how could you charge a premium?
Your real value comes from the results you provide.
Just had an example of exactly this with one of our clients...
Accountants are a dime a dozen. The market has pretty much made them a commodity so they all charge around the same fees. Most focus on ATO compliance, and there’s a limit to how much people will pay an hour for this service.
Therefore it’s pretty much impossible to charge a premium for your services, unless...
You stop allowing people to compare you with other accountants. You must remove any apples to apples comparison and stand apart in a class of your own.
So how could you do this?
You specialise!
In the case of our client, he specialises in Property Tax. He only works with people who actively invest in property and have as a result often have complex tax issues.
He provides expertise and a level of service that ITP or H&R Block simply can’t. He can charge a premium for his advice and his clients sleep well at night knowing they’ve not only minimised their tax, but they won’t get into trouble with the ATO.
But this is only part of the solution.
The second thing you must do is “internalise” the value you provide. By this I mean you must have the right mindset.
You must absolutely believe, deep down in the core of your being, that you provide real, tangible value.
And the best way to do this? Go back over all your clients and work out what you did for them and more importantly, what the tangible results were.
Take the time to create case studies which focus on results.
This does two things.
One, it helps you solidify your value in your own mind. Which helps you sell your services as you’ll be utterly convinced that you can help your clients and produce results.
And equally importantly, gives you significant marketing material which you’ll use to communicate to your audience.
Case studies provide proof that you can produce results. In effect you’re saying, “I did this for A, B, C, & D and got these results. People who are experiencing the same issues as you are, Mr Prospect. So you’re likely to get the same benefits...”
There is nothing more powerful than real world, tangible results based, case studies.
As an aside, we’ve been doing exactly this over the last couple of weeks. Barbara’s been going over every major client and working out what the value of our services has been. What results did we produce? How did we help them make more money, have a better lifestyle, achieve their goals...
The result? Once again, it reaffirmed to us that we add value. And we’ve take some of these case studies and completely reworked our website making it all about results people will get should they choose to work with us.
And finally, you must constantly communicate your value to as widely as possible. If the right people don’t know about your value and what you have to offer, how can they take advantage of it? This is called “Marketing”.
Rashid.
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