After researching your distinctives, the second step to market differentiation is to make yourself different! Be proactive in creating space between yourselves and the competition. Here are some ways you can stand out in the crowded market place:
- You! What is truly unique about your business is of course is you. What do your clients like about you, and how can this be leveraged in your favour? Your positive attitude and friendliness is going to be one of the most important factors in a client’s decision.
- Your colleagues! Think about the quality of customer relationships throughout your business. Are you easy to work with?
- Your focus and persistence in development of sales projects.
- Appreciation and saying ‘thank you’ for business placed with you. Do clients feel valued?
- Your corporate attitude to claims, and non-adversarial relationships on site.
- Your corporate identity — a sharp logo; literature that makes an impact.
- The quality of your website.
- The added value you bring to a project or a relationship.
- Your ability to provide early budget pricing.
- Your ability to actively add engineering and cost reduction at the tender stage, offering good advice on keeping costs down.
- Input into early stage site programme development.
- Comment on procurement and lead-in times for materials.
- Clear communication. Are you easy to get hold of, and is everyone on the same page?
- Listening skills. How can you show your clients that you understand their needs and concerns?
- Willingness to learn from client feedback. What would your clients find helpful? And do you invite their comments?
In which of these ways can you realistically differentiate yourselves from the competition? Make your list, develop an implementation strategy, and build it into your marketing plan — starting with your corporate image.
The debrief
It's always good to run a short informal interview with your client when a job has completed on site. You can do this yourself, or it's often better to get a third party to run the interview for you, either on the phone or in person.
It’s really helpful to get feedback fast. If the client would hesitate to work with you again, you will want to know why and make it right. If feedback is good, pass it on to motivate your staff.
The debrief conversation is good business in itself. It shows you take yourself seriously, that you value your client’s opinion, and want to do a good job. It will inspire confidence in your company.
