In this Ask Evan episode, Evan Carmichael answers a newsletter reader’s question about how to make a common product stand out when pitching reputable companies. He argues that differentiation should focus on service rather than product features, emphasizing speed, responsiveness, and going above and beyond for clients. He recommends starting with a low‑risk, small project, over‑delivering on service and delivery to win trust and repeat business. Evan illustrates the approach with his own experience creating content for corporate clients, where he doubles word counts, adds videos, and promotes the pieces to generate far more traffic than competitors. By consistently providing extra value, he shows how entrepreneurs can justify higher pricing and become the preferred supplier. The video concludes with a call for likes, comments, and further questions.
Chapters
Hi, I'm Evan Carmichael. Welcome to another edition of Ask Evan. Today I'm going to answer a question from one of my newsletter readers, Audrey, who wrote in about asking how she can stand out from her competition. So she wrote in specifically saying, "Good morning, Evan. Uh, uh, could you kindly advise us on how does one make a common product unique?" when approaching reputable companies? Audrey. So, thanks for the question. Something a lot of entrepreneurs will wrestle with is how to stand out from their competition. It's especially hard when there's nothing different about your product compared to everybody else. And the way that you are gonna stand out is, you know, it's not gonna be on the features, 'cause it's the same product that everybody else is selling, but it's gonna be more on the service side of things. So, how can you provide the absolute best kind of service to your clients compared to everybody else? So, you could think about, you know, speed, speed, how fast you get back to customers or prospects when they contact you by phone or by email, how much do you try to go above and beyond to service the needs, you know, of your clients and really help them out. This delivery, are you giving them, you know, timely delivery better than your competition? So you gotta think about the service side. How can you make your customers fall in love with you compared to your competition? A lot of times companies will have established suppliers that they use, but they may not, you know, really be in love with them. They may use them just out of habit. So if you can really come in and wow them with your service and really go above and beyond thinking about how you can help their business beyond just supplying whatever product it is to them, then you become a really important and valuable part of their ongoing business, and that becomes really crucial to help you stand out compared to everybody else. Now, you talked about going after reputable companies and how to get established. My favorite, favorite, favorite way to do it is to try to start on a really small project and then overdeliver like crazy. So try to find, you know, you may have an ideal client that you're going after and it may be worth a lot of money to you. Try to start on a really small project with them and that project you may not make a lot of money on. I wouldn't cut my pricing down too much, but I would spend a lot of time and effort on the service and the delivery of whatever product you're producing. You basically want to take one small project that's really low risk for them So you can say, just try me out, do a really small order, let me prove myself to you, let me show you how we can really wow you compared to everybody else. And you know, because it's low risk to them, they're more likely to say yes. Now you come in, you go crazy on this first order, you know, make sure they love you, try to add a couple other things on the service side to really wow them compared to what your competition is doing. And then when it's time to reorder, who are they gonna go with? You're the company who's really stood out, so they're gonna wanna keep coming back and ordering from you. And this is a strategy that I use over and over and over again with my clients. I get hired by corporate clients who ask me to create content for their websites, for example, and they may hire me as well as 50 other bloggers who are trying to create content as well. And what I do is always try to go above and beyond the expectations. So, You know, if they ask for 500 words, I'll usually create at least 1,000 or 1,500 words. I'll add a video on top of it. I'll then promote it and market it and show, you know, my readers what I'm doing and drive traffic to them and promote them and give them a lot of exposure so that my articles end up getting, you know, 10 times plus the amount of traffic and comments compared to everybody else. So then when it's time to, you know, negotiate an extension, they're gonna come to me first compared to everybody else because I'm providing a lot of extra value. And that also allows you to increase your pricing. Now, if your product is exactly the same, then it can be hard to charge too much of a premium. But if you're providing a lot of extra service, then you might be able to justify charging an even higher price compared to your competition. But you gotta start off wowing them and showing them that you can deliver compared to everybody else in your market. So hopefully that answers your question. If you like the video, I'd really appreciate for those of you watching, if you wanna give it a thumbs up, It makes me wanna do more of these videos for you. And if you have a comment about this video or you have a question of your own for your business, feel free to leave it in the comments below. I always read those and I try to respond to as many as I can. So thank you and I'll see you on the next episode.
