Shouting "We're The Best" Won't Bring You Sales! | Small Business #Marketing Tips

When I ask a business owner what they see as being their main competitive advantage, many of them will use the word "quality" as part of their answer. They'll say something like, "We produce a higher quality product," or "All our people have a commitment to quality." But as a descriptor of competitive advantage, "quality" is useless. Now, I'm not saying the quality of your product isn't important as part of your wider customer acquisition and lead generation process. What I'm saying is your competitors see delivering quality as being just as important. As far as the customer is concerned, the quality of whatever you're selling, as well as whatever your competition is selling, is a given. Don't for one second think of diminishing or underestimating the quality of what your competitors are producing. After all, customers are already buying from them and are happy with what they're getting. If they weren't, that competitor wouldn't exist. Basing competitive advantage or USP around quality is like saying your taxi company is better because all your cars have four wheels. The fit for purpose part of the transaction is implied. Your meaningful competitive advantage isn't about what you do well, it's about what you do differently from everyone else. The real opportunity lies in having a greater understanding of your customers compared to the competition. Then to design meaningful and relevant customer marketing experiences based on insights from such buyer data, presenting whatever you do better in terms of providing greater customer value, delivering it faster, easier, more conveniently, or whatever other metric the customer sees as being of value.