Competitive Positioning: Why Someone Should Choose You

Part A: Prove the Idea Works

Focus determines direction.

Ask business owners why a customer should choose them and most will say some version of “quality and service.” We hear it from contractors, restaurant owners and consultants alike. It sounds like an answer. It is really a way of not answering.

Here is the problem. Every one of your competitors says the same two words. So when a customer hears them from you, nothing has been added to the conversation, and the customer goes back to the only thing left to compare, which is price. Have you ever noticed how many owners complain that customers only care about price, right after telling those customers nothing else to care about?

A slogan versus a distinction

A slogan is something you say about yourself. A distinction is something a customer can see is different between you and the next option. “We treat every customer like family” is a slogan. “We answer the phone until eight at night, when nobody else in town does” is a distinction. One can be printed on a truck by anyone. The other has to be true, and someone has to have built the business to make it true.

Here is a simple test. Take your sentence and put a competitor’s name in front of it. Could they say it, and would a customer believe them? If the answer is yes, you have not found a reason to choose you yet. You have found the price of admission.

This is also where positioning and competing part ways, as we covered in Knowing Your Competitors: competing is a race you can lose to a bigger company, and positioning is a place you can stand.

How to find yours

Start from the customer, not from yourself. Many owners have never asked a customer why they picked them, so they guess, and some guess wrong and slowly lose work without knowing why. So find out. If you already have customers, ask a handful of them plainly: why did you call us, and what almost made you call someone else? Their words will surprise you, and they will rarely be the words on your website.

If you have not opened yet, do what I suggested in the competitor lesson: become a customer of the people you will compete with. Request the quote, sit through the sales process, notice how long you waited for a callback. Every gap you feel as a customer is a possible distinction. Say a plumber in your area never confirms appointment windows. Being the one who does is a difference a homeowner can feel before they ever see a bill. (That one is a hypothetical, not a client, though we see the pattern often.)

Then run each candidate through four questions. Is it true today, or only something you hope to be true? Does the customer actually care about it? Can they see it or check it without taking your word? And would it be hard for a competitor to copy next month? A distinction that fails the first question is a lie. One that fails the second is a hobby. One that fails the third is a slogan again.

Choose few, and choose who you are not for

You get one, maybe two, distinctions that people will remember. The urge is to list six, because we are afraid of leaving a reason on the table. Resist it. A message with six reasons is heard as no reason at all. Focus determines direction, and that is true of a customer’s attention as much as your own.

The other half is harder. A real distinction always says no to someone. The image you present decides who does business with you, and you get the type of customer your image portrays. A restaurant built for a quiet, high-end evening will not also be the place for the loud birthday party, and it should not try to be. Who are you willing to lose in order to be clearly the right choice for someone else?

Test your sentence

Write down the one sentence you currently use to explain why people should choose you. Now put the name of your strongest competitor in front of it and read it aloud. If it still sounds true for them, spend this week gathering better material: ask five customers why they chose you, or, if you have none yet, contact three competitors as a prospective customer and write down every moment that felt different from how you would do it.

What it costs

Talking to five customers or three competitors takes a few hours spread over a week, plus an hour or two to write up what you heard. It costs nothing but time and, if you buy something small from a competitor, a little money. The harder work comes afterward, which is building the business so the distinction is actually true.