We have no competition
“We have no competitors”…
I wanted to provide some learning from a couple of recent client strategy sessions, where it had been communicated that “we have no true competitors”. What these clients meant, was that no one has the same goods and/or services offering as they do OR, that the competition was so far inferior in delivering to the needs of the customer, that they could not be deemed a comparison.
On both occasions I also came to learn that these clients have actually missed out on work and even LOST work to a competitor they supposedly don’t have!
Let me be clear…. On the basis of the information I know, having worked with these companies for a while, their competitors are truly miles away in terms of THE service provided, and/or actually provide a totally different level of service.
For example, one company provides an integrated enterprise software solution. Their competitor provides an APP – a non-integrated lite piece of software. It’s like comparing an apple with an orange! How then, do they lose business you may ask…
Given this “no competition” comment and my understanding of the situation, I thought I’d provide all my clients with a few insights that apply to ANY business wanting to grow and win!
1. How well are you marketing and communicating your differentiators to your clients AND prospects? To be more specific:
· How well are you marketing your ability to deliver specifically to your customer and prospects highest order NEEDS?
· How are you messaging what you do that is markedly better than the “competitor” or any other alternatives out there?
· Some people call this a Unique Selling Proposition (USP). If no one knows about it, or understands it, your USP isn’t too valuable!
2. How well are you communicating with your clients?
In a corporate/enterprise environment, you will need to put in place a PROACTIVE account management strategy and action plan that covers stakeholders across the whole organisation. This would include talking with people from potentially the CEO all the way through to the front-line management. And that also entails people across your organisation communicating with people across your clients’ organisations. And you need to coordinate this as a business!
You would be amazed at how many contracts have gone awry because the operators, or line managers have become dissatisfied, and the senior contacts in a client organisation have no idea about it. What’s more, no one from the client organisation has been forthcoming to let the service provider know of their issues!
3. We must CONTINUALLY assess the NEEDS of our clients. Establishing what these needs are, is a strong first step, but actually assessing how well we are delivering against these is critical.
Note, depending on the particular person in your client and their role, their needs WILL differ. Whilst you sell in through the decision maker, as per point #2 above, service/product quality issues often go wrong without the decision maker having any clue. Keep close to your clients at all levels of their organisation. Not only can you nip product/service failures in the bud, you can also leverage these relationship to GROW your penetration into the client’s business AND seek referrals!
Stay close to your clients and pre-empt their problems!
4. Further to point #3, how consistent are your proactive comms with your clients? Let them say to you, “you don’t need to contact us…when something goes wrong, we’ll let you know!” Keep on communicating with them. But, find different methods to communicate – written letters, email, telephone, in-person meetings, off-site sessions etc. You can always leverage a strong connection to build your knowledge of them, their business challenges, industry innovation, and even their business strategy. If you can help them solve some of their strategic challenges, you add immense value and will be creating a much more “sticky”, valuable, and sustaining relationship.
5. IF (a big if!!) you truly have NO competition, it remains critical that you serve your customers as though you were operating in the most competitive marketplace. You want to exceed expectations! You want to inspire your team! You want to create raving fans and advocates! You want people to WANT to use your products/services.
Contrast this to NBN. This is a business with effectively NO competition. Have you heard of anyone who offers complements about NBN? Its customers are STUCK with NBN. They begrudgingly engage NBN because we have no other choice! Don’t become an NBN. Applying points 1 through 4, will help you to create raving fans and advocates. A massive side-benefit of this is that your people will probably also enjoy their interactions with your customers.
Please contemplate these tips for your business and ensure that you share and discuss these learnings with your team.
Have a great week and grow well!!