Your Business and The Competition: Similar or Different?
Think about your 5 biggest competitors. You know, the companies that most often give you a run for your money when trying to win a new prospect or maintain a long-term client.
Now, ask yourself this question.
When your prospects and current clients decide to do their homework on your company and those aforementioned competitors, what are their methods?
- Research Online?
- Ask for Referrals?
- Seek out Information From Their Network?
- Read/Watch Your Content?
Perhaps there are more methods than those above, but today with the way that most people are gathering information prior to making buying decisions these certainly outline some of the preferred methods.
With this in mind, when your prospects and ongoing customers go information seeking, what do they find?
Do they find unique information that is compelling? Insight on your organization that makes them say, “Yes, I want to do business with a company like this?”
Or…
Do they find the same ole’ story that your competitors are telling?
Just the other day I asked this very question to a prospect…
“What will a prospective customer find out online about your business that they won’t find when they research your competitors?
I’m sure your company has content about your products and services. Potentially the suppliers or partners that your company works with and if you have gone a little further than most you have given a few testimonials or case studies to help your prospective clients just a little bit more.
But here is the thing…
If they can get almost identical information off of your competitors’ site, how is your business differentiating itself with its content?
Get Dynamic, Solve Problems, Differentiate Yourself
For businesses, especially B2B’s looking to stand out, you have to go beyond the What and the How.
Almost to assume that everyone on the planet that does similar work to your company is already telling this story online. You have to start thinking about how your business is solving the problems of your current customers and target audience. Then you have to create the content that tells that story.
Share how your business makes its customers more successful.
If you are a consulting company tell your ideal customer how you are getting customers like them results.
If you are a law firm talk to how you help clients get to a desired resolution without turning their life upside down.
And so on and so forth…
Whatever you do, don’t accept having the same information that every one of your competitors has online.
In today’s connected world where consumers are more and more anxious to turn their research over to Google and their Social Networks, not having a different story is almost as bad as not having a story at all.
I know, and you know the story of your business is unique and needs to be told begging the question…
How are you telling your story to help your company be found, seen and heard the way you want it to be?
Daniel Newman is the co-founder of V3*Broadsuite and is an experienced C-level executive, serving as a strategy consultant for small and mid-sized businesses. He’s also an insight/analyst partner to four Fortune 50 enterprises and previously served as the co-founder and CEO of EC3, a hosted IT and communications services provider. Prior to that, he served as the CEO of United Visual, Inc. in Chicago Illinois.
He is a widely published writer who contributes weekly to Forbes, Entrepreneur, Huffington Post and industry publications such as Commercial Integrator, Sound & Communication and Corporate Tech Decisions. He’s also author of three best-selling business books including The New Rules of Customer Engagement, The Millennial CEO, and just recently Evolve: Marketing (^as we know it) is Doomed.
Daniel has established a reputation as a leading thinker in topics such as Social, Big Data, Cloud and Mobile. He has been named to many top influencer lists in all of these areas, including recognition by the Huffington Post as one of the 100 business and leadership accounts to follow on Twitter. He is also an adjunct professor of management at North Central College.
