You’re Not The Same As Your Competitors!

You're right Ric, you do go purple! What IT Professionals also tend to forget when it comes to their intros is their extensive wealth of experience as business professionals. Not only are they knowledgeable in the field of technology but they are actively running their own businesses just like their own clients. This is a really great (and relevant) post although I'm not sure about your tendency to use Spanish names in your examples... :)

Great post - you make a very valid point about differentiation, and knowing what you / your company stand for and what makes you unique. This reminds me of an interesting recent post I saw about Apple and their focus on the "why" rather than "what". We always ask our clients why they work with us, what they like and dislike about our service - and the answers will normally provide very valuable insight into our company and our clients' needs / wants. Sometimes the answers are totally not what we expect!

Thanks for the feedback - appreciate you taking the time to leave it! I don't think you're alone in being surprised at some of the feedback you receive from clients, once you've prompted them. We can lose sight of what we're very good at ourselves, and sometimes it takes others to remind us of that!

Susanne - I know, purple isn't a good look on me is it? Interesting you mention IT Pro's wealth of experience as Business Professionals. Agreed. In my former life as an MSP owner, I noticed clients approaching us for all sorts of general business advice, not just IT related. This is the move towards the true "Trusted Business Advisor" role we so often speak of in our field. As for my Spanish name use. I did it so as not to make anyone feel I was chatting about them directly. It failed though when Raul from Dundee e-mailed me to ask why I was talking about him. ;-)

Ric- I think it's an important point and completely agree with the underlying theme. Nobody should go around a table at any meeting saying 'we do the same as the last/other/that guy'. That said, I believe most people are far too hung up with the notion of a 'unique selling proposition' or 'elevator pitch' or uncovering something totally unique about their business. The truth is, from a top level perspective, many of the businesses in our space and at the type of meetings we both attend *are* very similar. Actually, we probably *do* do the same thing. We sell to the same sort of clients. We use the same or similar products and services. We collaborate in the same communities. We all value our clients and do everything we can to deliver good customer service. We all 'bridge the gap between IT and business'. we all speak plain-english instead of techno-babble... the list goes on and on. None of these things are unique. Truth is, there are very few truly unique businesses out there. The Dyson vacuum cleaner is(was) unique. A regional professional service firm which 'cares passionately about it's customers' is not. The best (worst) example I came across this recently was at a fairly respectable global hotel chain - the Intercontinental in Miami. Their TVs default to their own marketing channel, and in their (almost) exact words, claim.. "what makes us truly unique is our commitment and passion for customer service" ermm... which genius wrote this? Which upmarket hotel chain *isn't* passionate about its customer service?! The worst thing that can happen is that you actually start to * believe* that this BS makes you unique - well, your potential clients won't be so easily convinced. (great shout about evidence - having lots of strong *evidence* of your commitment to customer service probably would differentiate you.. but then we're getting into a whole different subject) The secret - which you have covered here with reference to the specific IT community meetings - is that your message should always be tailored to your audience. (okay - hard to do for a global hotel chain, I admit. Not so for a small regional IT service provider) It doesn't matter what makes you unique in the broad sense of the word that everybody seems to focus on (you're probably not, in anyway that can be communicated honestly, effectively and in the space of a few minutes.) It matters what makes you uniquely qualified to address a need or pain point a specific person or group of people may have at that moment in time. You've covered that well here but I think it deserves a little more emphasis. If you're in a meeting of SMB IT service providers, chances are your business *are*, from a top level perspective, pretty much the same. As you have written, you absolutely should be able to think of something to say - there is nothing wrong with 'we're pretty much the same as you guys, *but*, we do have a really strong skillset in Sharepoint/BPOS/. Chances are, you'll be talking about something that means something to that audience. When you talk to a prospect who is fed up with a provider taking too long to respond to phone calls, it is no good waffling on about your pre-prepared 'USP' if it is that you are plain-english speaking and have 10 years experience. Fail. great discussion cheers Lee

Lee - fair comments. I'm leaning towards agreeing with you on the whole USP thing - and I too am slowly going off the traditional idea of elevator pitches as an introduction method - but what you said about tailoring your pitch to your audience is what struck a chord with me. If you're at a peer group meeting, then this would be what you specialise in. If you're in front of a client, then the best thing you can do is listen. Let them do 75% of the talking.

Good post, and I agree completely. Understanding your USP is crucial for building your business - if you can't articulate what you do, it's very hard to sell your services to others. It's the details that make your offer come alive, and make it easier for other people to refer you.

Sharon - absolutely, and you're *definitely* the lady to contact if you need helping articulating what you do!

Great post. From a business manager's perspective, I wonder if there is any perception of 'additional risk' from engaging with a services company who provide a unique proposition. Perhaps if managed IT is about reducing risk a 'unique approach' may not be as successful as an 'industry standard' one. Food for thought?

Gareth - good point. I think it's possible to talk about how you follow industry accepted "Best Practices" without suggesting you're a "Cookie Cutter" IT company. I'd be inclined to talk to clients about the ways you adopt these Best Practices - for instance, standardised IT equipment from a single vendor across client sites. You could talk about how standardisation in this way brings benefits such as the fact you purposely work hard at maintaining an awesome relationship with that particular vendor, and all your engineers know their kit inside and out - which brings numerous obvious benefits to the client. I suspect, given everyone's comments, that there's a good conversation to be had around this topic isn't there?