Now you understand how to:

- differentiate your business from your competition.

- stake out a "market dominating position" for your business.

- discover five ways to separate your business from all others in your industry.

NOTE: If you haven't read 'Creating Your Market Dominating Position (Part 1) - A Five Step Differentiation Process', I recommend you do so now)

... it's time to learn the 3 categories that will make your business unique, and ultimately create a "Market Of One"!

Separate Your Business Into 3 Business Categories

CATEGORY #1: The level of service you provide

• Convenience
• Speed
• Education and Training
• Eliminate Risk
• Quality
• Security and Safety

CATEGORY #2: Selection

• Different models/Service Levels
• Greater range

CATEGORY #3: Pricing

• Fixed
• Price increase
• Small Value Added Services

Category #1 involves the level of SERVICE you provide

There are a total of 6 different areas where you can add value when it comes to service.

• Convenience
• Speed
• Education and Training
• Eliminate Risk
• Quality
• Security and Safety (rocketed to equal #1 position 'Convenience' in our COVID-19 world)

Let's dive deeper into the first area, CONVENIENCE

Today, most people value more than money is more time.

Convenience stores typically charge 40% or more for the “convenience” of shopping there.

Increasing your customer’s convenience will create a market dominating advantage.

Convenience can be further separated into 6 sub-categories

• Location

• Availability

• Ordering Process

• Delivery

• Payment Terms

• Miscellaneous Services

Location

Although this is probably the best way to provide convenience, changing locations isn’t often an option.

A great location is a secondary market dominating position.

For a fitness center located near a major residential area, location is certainly their primary market dominating position.

Availability

Customers do business on THEIR schedule, not yours.

What you can do to make your business more available, including extending the hours or the days your open.

Health clubs, supermarkets and convenience stores are now open 24 / 7 / 365.

Evaluate your customer’s needs to see if this is a viable option that will produce a positive return for making your business more convenient.

Ordering process

If ordering is typically a headache for your customers then solving this problem can help you to establish a powerful market dominating position.

The business that makes ordering convenient by providing easy access to menus with a live operator option, or the ability to conveniently order online... becomes the logical choice for most customers.

Delivery

When a more convenient location isn’t an option, then bring your product or service to the customer.

Businesses now specialize in delivering local restaurant items directly to your home or office.

People consider convenience to be more valuable to them than money.

One area involving delivery is mobile services.

The business comes directly to your location to perform their services.

This is more convenient and it enables the decorator to perform a consultative type sale by helping the customer select colors that match their home and their lifestyle.

This personalised approach often leads to dramatic increases in conversion rates and often takes price out of the equation.

Payment terms

If your competition doesn’t offer any type of financing options, you can differentiate your business by offering payment terms over 30, 60 or 90 days.

Offer multiple payment options such as a “3 easy payment plan”.

Consider accepting credit cards if you don’t currently accept them.

Miscellaneous services:

What additional services do customers consider important?

If your business attracts parents with small kids, consider offering child care services while the parents shop or take care of business.

If your business requires parents to evaluate their purchase decision... then having a child’s play area can be a huge area of differentiation.

The second area is SPEED

Speed and convenience are major players in our customer’s buying decisions.

Find opportunities here you can exploit and your business can quickly dominate your market.

The third area is EDUCATION AND TRAINING

Prospects and customers today value education and training as much as they do value and price.

They want to take advantage of all the benefits your product or service can offer them and education and training can help them accomplish that goal.

Small and medium business owners can instantly compete against major corporations by offering special and targeted training to their customers when the major corporation fails to provide it.

This is especially true if you’re selling a commodity type product or service where application knowledge is required.

Educating prospects that education and training is provided is enough to give them a major market dominating position.

The forth area is ELIMINATING RISK

100% money-back guarantees and generous return policies are quickly becoming the norm in most industries.

If your competitors don’t offer a 100% money back guarantee then you have the opportunity to make your business the only logical choice by doing so.

How else can you eliminate or reduce risk in the mind of your prospect?

1. Leverage quantitative data - from you own, and industry recognised/trusted 3rd party sources. If you have data that prooves these sources wrong - even better!

2. Ensure transparency. Today's prospects want to know the truth - so don't shade it. In this social media age, where customers freely voice their opinions online, you can be assured any issue about your offering, customer service and financial stability can be easily be uncovered (and socialised).

3. Manage (better yet - pre-empt) their expectations and objecitons. It eliminates the FUD [fear, uncertainty, and doubt], which helps to mitigate their perception of risk.

4. Engage multiple stakeholders. Prior to any proposal or presentation, ensure  you generate some form of marketing collatoral directly addressing other people involved (your prospects influencers). Think business partner, life partner, mentor, close friends or family 'head honcho'. This reduces the risk that your primary contact will be blindsided by turf issues or hidden agendas at the end of the decision-making process.

5. Offer references/Reviews/Testimonials. Your willingness to openly share references with prospects makes a big difference. Certainly, you have your top clients who love you. Also consider offering your three newest customers, as they're most likely to relate to your prospects fears and are likely to be strong advocates.

The fifth area is QUALITY

Quality can be a powerful differentiator

Think of quality as the perceived benefit received by the customer.

• Focus on details

• Be transparent

• Highlight positive customer reviews/testimonials

Your product’s quality is your most distinguishing brand factor, so bring it to the fore!

It can be difficult for brands to separate themselves from competitors if they only focus on surface-level aspects of their product offerings.

By highlighting real user reviews and experiences, sharing sourcing stories and product details - you have the opportunity to connect with potential buyers on an authentic level.  

The sixth area is SECURITY AND SAFETY (rocketed to equal #1 position in our COVID-19 world)

Security and safety have now entered into the decision-making process for most prospects.

If your business is in a less desirable neighborhood or you deal with children or the elderly, what steps you can take to make your prospects feel totally safe.

Be sure you consider these six areas when it comes to service as a way to add massive value and create a market dominating position for your business.

Category #2 involves SELECTION

Blockbuster dominated the video market by stocking more hit movies than its smaller competitors.

Blockbuster created a market dominating position where they guaranteed that new releases would be available whenever their customers wanted to rent them.

Unfortunately, the convenience factor quickly came into play.

Netflix duplicated the Blockbuster model for selection and then added the convenience of never having to leave your home to rent a movie.

Blockbuster went from $6 billion in total revenue in 2004 to bankruptcy in 2010 while Netflix went from $500 million to $2.2 billion in revenue in that same time frame.

In Netflix’s case, they matched their competition in the area of selection, and innovated in the area of convenience.

Selection can include different models, shapes, sizes, styles, colors, service levels, membership levels and so on.

If you’re a retailer, offering greater selection may be as simple as combining different products or services to create a bundled offer.

What combination of products and services will appeal to your various customer groups?

Category #3 involves PRICING

If price represents your market dominating position, you’re settling for low profit margins at best.

If you fail to convince a prospect of your value proposition, you can cut your price in half and you still won’t get the sale.

Only 14% of prospects buy strictly on price.

If you combine price with other market dominating advantages, then price can be a compelling tool.

3 Ways Price Can Differentiate

First, single or fixed pricing

Businesses that can differentiate themselves by offering a set price are those that charge by the hour, the unit, the number of services they provide, the amount of food eaten or the number of products used.

Fixed pricing can be used for most businesses to establish a market dominating position.

You can also used fixed pricing on a per visit or per season basis.

Second, increase or decrease the price you charge.

Prospects often judge quality by the price you charge.

A price that they perceive to be extremely low instantly sends off warning bells in their decision-making process.

Businesses can actually raise their pricing and instantly reposition their product or service to give it the perception of being the superior choice without changing anything else.

Third, offer small value added services.

There are always customers that will gladly pay you a little extra to receive a higher level of service.

If you believe this applies to your business think about raising your service level along with your pricing.

Value added services don’t require huge investments.

Service, selection and price make up the 3 categories that will enable you to separate your business from your competition.

Use the examples provided to help you find your own market dominating position for your business.

Once you do, you can create your “million dollar message”.