3 Steps to better leads: Step 3 Positioning

Are you positioned for competitive advantage?

 In the first two posts of this three-part series, I introduced segmentation and targeting, focusing on the value of defining a segment who share a common business pain and finding exactly the right person in that segment to target.

This third part is about positioning – ensuring that you and your organisation can differentiate from your competitors, presenting yourselves as relevant for a need that the prospect has right now.  I provide two tried and tested ways to assist you with differentiating your offering and a suggestion for getting started. 

What does the customer need, right now?

How many times have you seen a company present themselves as having an “end to end” offering, or as flexible, agile, responsive and so on?  There are two issues that using these rather generic terms presents, even if they are accurate and true.  One is the perspective of the customer.  An offering can only be truly end to end if it meets the customer's entire need and want.  Think about going to a restaurant for a meal. You’d be disappointed if they didn’t offer the basics, the core offering of table, chairs, waiter service and a three course menu.  Of course, as customers, we look for more beyond this – the augmented offering. 

This might be the location, the ambience, the price or special offers, how cool (or not) we think it is, whether they allow children, the quality of the food, the friendliness of the service, whether they cater for food allergies and so on.

 The point is, that as a consumer I might want different things at different times as my needs and wants change depending on the situation.  What might be an end to end service for me in one context, might not be in another.   

 Over-used claims

 The second issue is the ubiquity of these terms, "end to end", "holistic", "transformational", "leading provider of x" and so on. In my last post I claimed that there are fewer than 10,000 organisations with more than 250 employees in the UK (ONS, 2015), with more than 5,000 IT and Communications companies chasing their business, so how you introduce your capability to this audience to gain mindshare and traction is critical.  

The acid test is that if you could replace your company’s name with that of a direct competitor in your company or product overview and it still makes sense, then more work can be done to differentiate yourself, so you can be heard above the noise of the crowd.

 So how do we differentiate ourselves?

 Three Level Analysis

 In "Principles of Marketing" Philip Kotler et al devised a concept of benefit building for products. Kotler suggested that if you view a product on three levels it will help you extract all the benefits that your product offers.

Using a three level analysis helps us to identify what is different or unique about our product or service.  Take a bank account.  I expect that the core offering offers me the ability to keep and manage my money safely and easily.  The actual product allows me to do this – current account, cards, credit limits and overdrafts, branches, 24*7 call centre, online and mobile access and so on.  It is the augmented product that is the point of differentiation.

Some banks offer the ability to make payments to friends via their mobile app.  Some are implementing security technology that learns our behaviours to protect access to our accounts.  Some are closing branches whilst some, like Virgin, are investing in super branches that provide work spaces for those working on the move.  In this case, Virgin does not need to say they offer an end to end service, rather they focus on not what the core product does, but wrap around services that customers might find useful.    So they are focusing their marketing on their augmented product, promoting themselves to hectic business people who, rather than use a noisy coffee shop as a touchdown point, can drop into a Virgin lounge.  

Claims with evidence

If your organisation has retained and grown customers over time, that’s a reason to be proud. You are doing the right things.  However, when it comes to translating that into how you market your business, making claims with evidence is a sure way to differentiate yourself from the rest.  “We save people time and money” can perhaps be more helpfully translated into “we helped ABC bank reduce time to market by 6 months, saving them ￡x on configuration and development costs and ￡Y by avoiding unnecessary capital expenditure” or “we help large and small organisations” could be replaced with “From helping a 4 person FinTech start up get their product to market to assisting a 70,000 employee retailer to standardise its operating environment and reduce IT maintenance costs by 30%, we have the capability to…”

 These types of specific claims with quantifiable evidence are unique to your organisation and are really useful ways to position yourself differently to the competition. 

Getting Started

To identify and capture your augmented product and the benefits you have delivered to end users, interview 3- 4 friendly customers to get their feedback.  Find out what it is they value about using your organisation and why they choose you.  This is also an opportunity to get feedback on what they think you can improve, which can inform future product development and service design. 

 If you would like to see some anonymous examples of where I have interviewed end user customers to capture their feedback to inform marketing messages and product development, or want some help getting started, drop me a line. 

 [email protected]

I always look forward to your comments.