How to Differentiate Your Service | Sales Management Training
A key to uncovering prospect needs is to clearly differentiate you and your firm’s services from other similar providers in your marketplace. There are mega firms, tiny firms, and all kinds of firms in between. There are specialty firms, boutique firms, and department store firms (one-stop shops). When you clearly differentiate your firm by identifying the best clients and the needs you can best help with, you increase the potential for serving that need early in the relationship.
An Example
Some firms differentiate along industry lines or by type of client. Others develop deep expertise in a service line. For instance, the Sunnyvale, California, law firm Day Case beer Madrid & Batchelder, LLP focuses their 30-lawyer operation on intellectual property litigation for a few large clients. Crowe Chizek, LLP has grown rapidly over the past 15 years by focusing on consulting businesses, community banks, auto dealers, and manufacturing.
You can have more than one speciality, but each client is only interested in your ability to uniquely serve their needs. This means that, ultimately, your goal is to build a relationship with the client that can’t be duplicated. This relationship occurs on two dimensions. First, the principles of one-to-one marketing say for you to invest in customizing your services for each client. When clients invest in “educating” you on how to customize your services for them, they will not want to spend the time developing other service providers.
Second, the ultimate differentiation that no one else can match is YOU. You are a unique individual. Rather than sup- pressing your individuality to achieve some sort of neutral “professionalism,” you should be both professional and individual. Many professionals make the mistake of thinking that clients hire them for their expertise, as if they were plug-in modules with a particular skill. If that were the case, you would be a commodity. You must be an individual. When clients feel comfort- able and taken care of by you as a person, they won’t want to risk going elsewhere.
Conclusion
You need to understand how to differentiate yourself and your business. First, know your speciality and your services inside and out. Being able to articulate your expertise is impressive to clients and prospects. Second, stress that the key differentiator in working with you is you. No matter how big the client firm, people always work with people. And they decide to engage you based on the differences they believe are important. You are the most important differentiator.
