Read This Book Annually to Stay on Top of Being Able to Express Your Competitive Advantage!
A client recently mentioned that he reads Jaynie Smith’s book, “Creating Competitive Advantage,” every year as part of his strategic thinking time. For a book that has been around since 2006, I thought that was a pretty decent testimonial. So I bought it and was NOT disappointed!
Everyone talks about “differentiating yourself,” “creating a competitive advantage,” or your “unique value proposition,” but I found that Smith was deft at calling companies out on generalities and getting them to the specifics on what makes their product or service truly worth buying.
What I REALLY valued in this book was the thought process on how to get your team to move from abstract ideas to tangible selling points (your competitive advantage) that will make your customers want to buy from your company. I loved all of her examples….which are dated in 2006 – yet they also reinforce the point that your competitive advantage can be replicated or disintegrate over time if you don’t constantly review them.
Smith says, “Competitive advantages can be fleeting. Only monopolies and near-monopoly companies have those that endure. In most other cases, competitive advantages can last months or years, but seldom decades.” And that’s why my client keeps reading this every year!
Although Smith doesn’t overtly share the process that she goes through in her workshops, I envision that it goes something like this:
What are the company’s chief problems with expressing the value they bring to their customers?
Identify the company’s chief goals.
Discuss/brainstorm:
- What are your company’s most critical competitive advantages?
- What do your employees think are your company’s competitive advantages?
- What are your competitors’ competitive advantages?
- What are the disadvantages to working with your company?
- How do you respond to customers when they ask, “Why should I buy from you?”
- What are your strengths?
- What makes your company special?
- What are your deliverables to the customer?
- What is in the “fine print” that they may (or may not) know about?
Review the resulting list. Your list is a good start but probably not great. Refine/rework each item on the list so that it is objective, not subjective. Make sure it’s quantifiable and not arbitrary. Make sure it isn’t claimed by the competition, a cliche, or it doesn’t belong on the list!
Once you have identified some advantages, “come up with some good numbers” that substantiate your claim.
Confirm your assumptions about what is most important to your customer. Smith calls this the “dangerous disparity,” as most companies are completely wrong. She recommends having an outside party conduct this piece of research to find out what your customers REALLY want.
Much of this book is about how to focus in on what is truly a differentiator OR creating a differentiation in the marketplace. The other parts focus on how to build a competitive advantage culture and how to communicate your competitive advantage internally as well as externally.
I can see why my client reads this book every year! I highly recommend it!
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Kristin Arnold
KRISTIN ARNOLD, MBA, CSP, CPAE-Speaker Hall of Fame, CPF | Master has been facilitating meaningful conversations between executives and managers to make better decisions and achieve extraordinary results for 30+ years. She's a leading authority on moderating panel discussions and passionate about finding the perfect olive to complement a vodka martini.
