Difference between Differentiating or Distinguishing

Differentiation is the action or process of differentiating. There are many ways to separate out your company through products, services, channels, relationships, reputations, prices, even packaging can be a source of product differentiation.

The struggle many business professionals have with product differentiation is that it is often short-lived. Many product innovations are easy to duplicate. Further, it’s often a challenge to get your clients to experience the full range of products and services that you offer without a lot of effort.

Distinguishing is to discern something uniquely yours. It can be subtle yet profound.

What’s Possible in Distinguishing?

Instead of trying to compete on differentiating your products and services, what might be possible if you distinguished them instead?

You might not realize that you have a unique way that you work with your clients. You have a distinct process, methodology, or approach.

It’s your company’s uniqueness that is often underrepresented in your networking, marketing, and sales process. You know it’s underrepresented if you don’t know how to answer what you do in a way that distinguishes your services/products from all others that do similar work.

One of the biggest mistakes we see businesses make is they think that developing a signature asset is simply packaging their products and services. While packaging is important, your distinct asset may involve your unique approach, process or alignment of the delivery of those services.

Case Study

For example, we worked with a CEO of a training company that offered a number of leadership development programs. He was experiencing lengthy sales cycles and didn’t have a strategy to move his clients through the array of training services. He and his team struggled with succinctly enrolling others in their array of services.

As we worked through the framework in our Create Your Signature Program Master Class, he examined his company’s unique approach and aligned the array of training services with the company’s Contribution World. From there, we looked for the distinct connection among each of his leadership training options. Through working through our framework, he and his team discovered that engagement was at the core of all of their training. We also showed the CEO how his clients could move initially into and through his products and services channels increasing the lifetime value of each client.

By also naming the company’s unique platform they clarified the company’s marketing messages and created content for a book the CEO is writing that will serve as a lead generator for the company. The company’s signature platform is now a business asset where:

• His company is distinguished from all others that do similar work;
• Clients see that the platform can help them with engaging leadership; and
• The platform can also be included in the business valuation when he decides to sell it.

What can your company do to distinguish your products and services in the marketplace?

Invitation

If you are inspired to create your signature asset, I invite you to

Create Your Signature Program Master Class

Thurs-Fri, March 18, 2021

Join us online or onsite at the Business Innovation Lab, 38221 Plymouth Road, Suite 1, Livonia, Michigan 48150

To register or for more information about our class, visit: