With each one of us being bombarded with 2,500 marketing messages a month, Tom Edge examines how we can get heard in a crowded market place.

As a Business Mentor I often say that many of my clients do essentially the same thing. The only difference is that they talk about it using different words.

What these businesses are trying to do is to stand out in a crowded marketplace and get noticed. They want to be seen as unique or special in some way. They feel they need to differentiate themselves in order to be remembered and to attract more business.

My question is, do they really? And, if they do, what is the most effective way to stand out?

One way to think about this is to look at the many ways a professional service business communicates about itself:

1. Your name – The name you choose for the business is the most important marketing decision you will make. A general rule is to name the business what you do and or have a strap line that tells people who your main customers are. “I am Tom Edge from Training Projects. We give your Business The Edge.”
2. Your colour scheme – People recognise symbols and colours subconsciously. The spam firms on the internet selling logos are right in a what they say about the benefits of a well designed logo
   and colour scheme tailored to your customers psychographics (look up psychographics dictionary).
3. Your target market – Simply by catering to a specific market segment you can stand out. You can become known as the service provider who is a real expert in such and such an industry. This is simple and hardly sexy, but very effective.
4. The problems you solve – When you can demonstrate that you know a lot about a certain kind of issue, challenge or problem that your clients face, it positions you as a real professional who knows their stuff. It’s very attention-getting.
5. The results you produce – There’s nothing quite like gaining a reputation for making things happen. If you can get teams working productively, leaders leading effectively and ultimately consistently improving the bottom line, you’re going to get noticed and get lots of word-of-mouth business.
6. A promise of performance – I’m not necessarily talking about a guarantee, but about a reputation for getting the job done. You keep your word. You under-promise and over-deliver. You clean things up when you make a mistake. You don’t make excuses.
7. Positioning – Be first. –The idea is when the customer wants a product or service your name pops into their mind first. Who was the first person on the moon? Even though the flight was 50 years ago many still remember the name Neil Armstrong. But who was second? And third?

In your mind is a ladder for every product and service. One ‘trick’ of the marketer is to position you first on the ladder. For instance who; is first on the ladder labelled beans? Beans means………..Heinz!

What I’d like to suggest is that your most powerful different- comes from using all seven of the above to communicate about your business and services. It’s not one thing, it’s everything you say and do.

Some people call this a Value Proposition. I like to call it an Ultimate Outcome. You can put it together into one simple statement such as the following:

“I work with growing high-tech companies who are struggling with the challenges of growth and feel they are not getting the most from their people. We have a five year track record of measurably improving cooperation, teamwork and productivity, resulting in increased revenues and market share.”

This statement of course is the first line of the Marketing Plan.

You have to find and settle on a statement that works for you. But it’s important to realise that nobody is going to do business with you just because of that statement. You have to communicate a whole lot more in much more depth.

Nevertheless, an Ultimate Outcome should be the centre of gravity for all your marketing. This is the essence of what you stand for, of what your business is all about.

But is this the only way to differentiate yourself? What if everyone in your field offers pretty much the same services

Well, let me tell you a story…

I recently wanted to have my driveway re-paved from Tarmac to bricks.. I called one company who came and took a look and then disappeared for three weeks. Then he showed up one day, in a Porsche and wearing Bling, saying they needed to take some more measurements. In two weeks I got a written proposal which Didn’t give me any of the information I asked for – and a price Twice as much as I expected.

On to the next one…

I called another contractor. Unlike the first one who was a general landscape contractor, this one was a specialist in only doing brick drives. This guy looked like “a man with a van” but I liked him, he was knowledgeable and gave me some good ideas.

I got a proposal by mail about a week later but didn’t hear back from him so I called him up. He let me know his schedule was very booked but that he’d get back to me the next day with a definite time. I never heard from him.

On to the next…

Two or three weeks later I called another drive contractor.

He showed up on time and was also friendly and knowledgeable. His company was called “Just Drives” and he had a nicely painted sign on his van. But what I liked is that he gave me some certainty about starting. “I’ll take these Specifications and get back to you on Monday with a proposal. If the numbers work for you, we can start on Wednesday.”

Well, I met with him today, the numbers were good and we start on Wednesday. Finally, I’m a happy camper!

So what did differentiation have to do with me hiring this contractor? He was very much like the others in the work. But I finally chose him because he delivered on most of the seven points I outlined above: