Do you want to beat your competition? Do you really want to be the winner in your market?

Then you need to be clear on why people should choose you rather than the others.

Typical answers to the question “why should I choose you over your competitors?” are things such as:

• “We are better”
• “We have better customer service”
• “We have better quality products”

These kinds of answers just aren’t going to cut it. Better according to who? According to what standards? Of course we should always aim to give our customer the best we can, within the confines of our positioning in the market. If we are going to be the cheapest, we are not going to provide luxury quality, but we can aim to provide the best quality within our affordable price range. But there is a fundamental flaw in choosing “better” as the main reason for choosing you over the competition. First of all, there are no universal standards as to what is considered good, better or best, it is all relative and it is all in the eye of the beholder. Secondly, these kinds of things can be imitated. If you are doing or providing something better than the competition, they can study you and copy what you are doing. They may not always succeed, but they will definitely try, and may very well succeed. So whilst I am not saying you should not aim to be the best at what you do (you should!) I am simply saying, that it is extremely unlikely that this is enough and you need more.

So why should people choose you over your competitors?

Simple. [Read more…]