Are you unique? Do you do things differently than other people in your industry, but your service is still being judged as a commodity by your prospective clients?
How can you be seen that you’re not just another freelancer, consultant, or B2B service provider in the crowd?
Many business owners will spend significant time, money, and energy establishing their business and then hanging out a shingle to wait for “Everybody” to do business with.
What Makes You Unique in Your Business
The first step breaking out of the commodity trap is to get to the heart of your uniqueness.
Consider: Who is your favorite author? What makes them different from the hundreds of other authors in that genre?
Chances are, you picked up a book by that author, and you were hooked within a few pages. Other authors, writing similar stories, will not have that same charge for you.
Your favorite author knows her audience and writes for them. Her fame and success comes with the devotion of that core audience. The fans trust that anything that she writes will be well worth the time to read, and sometimes many times over!
Who Is Your Audience?
Who is your audience, and are you getting them hooked on the first few pages of your story? You might be wasting time trying to build a fan-base that is made up of “Everybody,” rather than that core audience that is drawn to you immediately.
Your Why
We have an in-depth process for discovering your story, or “your why”.
One of theexercises is to ask yourself, “who are the clients that come most naturally to me?” Your answer to this will give you a better idea of your target market, how to identify them in a crowd, and explain that audience to your referral sources. Consider demographics, psychographics, and other factors that make up your best clients.
Also, consider some of the qualities of your least favorite clients. Is there something about them that makes them difficult for you?
Now, ask yourself “what sort of outcome do you hope that your clients receive?” As business owners, what we want for our clients is often what we want for ourselves.
Be clear on the outcomes you hope to create. That will help you align with the people who want what you have to offer that goes beyond your products and services.
That is the reason that they buy from you and makes you stand out a crowded market.
