There are a number of ways that you can get your business to 'stand out from the crowd'. Indeed, the market you operate in may be very competitive and you need to attract the right sort of customer to buy from you, rather than your competitors. In this brief article I will look at a few ways in which you can differentiate your business from other firms in your industry.
Specialisation
It may be possible to offer a particular speciality in connection with the product or service you sell. For instance, a general accountant may decide to focus more of their time on Inheritance Tax and advertise that speciality. If you offer a range of products then you may consider just specialising in providing one type of product. Deciding to specialise in a particular product or service should be supported by the fact that it will be a more profitable move for the business.
Promptness of Service
It could be that you promise to deliver your product or service more quickly than your competitors. For example, you could guarantee next day delivery for an item that a customer has ordered from you. If you wish to differentiate your business on this basis then it is important that you offer a client a solid guarantee. By solid guarantee, I mean that if you do not deliver on time they will get something back due to the inconvenience that has been caused to them.
Local Business/ National Business/ International Business
As a business, you may wish to differentiate yourself on a geographical basis. For example, it could be that you provide a product to local businesses but this market is saturated. Therefore, you might consider it being worthwhile to offer the same product on a national basis; this would involve an element of re-branding your business to give it a national identity. The same principle can be applied to a business which wants to specialise in a local or international market.
Premium Product or Service
When your competitors are all cutting their costs and lowering the quality of their products or services, one option would be for you to stand firm on your prices or even raise them. If you choose this course of action, you will need to convince your customers that they will pay you more but get a better quality product or service. There are many products we come across everyday, some very famous brands, which use this premium product strategy.
As we have seen, there are a number of ways to differentiate your business from your competitors. Whichever strategies you decide to use, you will need to make sure that you undertake some thorough market research before you take action.
