Seven Ways to Differentiate and Dominate Your Market

Please note this transcript is machine generated so it is not perfect and should be used for reference only, you will get the best from the podcast by listening to it in it's designed format.

(00:00):
Ready to differentiate yourself for market domination. We'll listen to this episode because I'm going to show you seven ways that you can do just that and one way which trumps them all.

(00:19):
It's Jen here, your market leadership expert and business positioning coach and today I am back. It's been a bit of a whirlwind of a time for me and the family. We've been here, there and everywhere. Andy's literally just got back from a summer 10 Kilimanjaro, so hugely, hugely proud of him for achieving that as well as with the rest of the team who have gone out there to both trial it out and fill Mets and come back with a ton of info and excitement for everyone else. Who will be looking to take the trip in our other company ever track the adventure travel company that we own. And we've also come back I myself, my daughter and arms have come back from Morocco. We were out in Morocco because we were a having a family holiday, but also actually trialing out yet another trip that we're running there.

(01:17):
To basically find out more about the country, the trip itself, the track and all that kind of thing. Again, knowing your products makes it seem much easier to sell them. So that's why we do this. That's why we also make sure that we run market leading tracks by testing out and making sure that operationally they run well and that we give the best of the best customer service. And that will be yet another episode that we'll be recording in the future around that. Because I think that's really important that we strive in every area of market leadership in order to make sure that we give the best we possibly can and stay at the top. So that's, that's what I've been up to. That's what I've been doing. So, this episode is being recorded about a week after I return on the mode of batch recording over the next couple of days, which is fantastic.

(02:12):
I'm again, always recommend that people do that to keep on top of your content creation. So it's something I'm doing at the moment. And another thing that we're doing in terms of the tracks and trips that we've been going on for the adventure travel company is actually looking at how we can differentiate and make sure that our products are one of the kinds and that it's not something that is readily accessible in the market aside from us. That's what we really strive to do. And so I wanted to run today's episode around the different ways that you can differentiate and position yourself as a market leader and dominate your market because differentiation is key in saturated markets and every market is saturated. Now that's not to say that some are more saturated others because absolutely that is true. And in particular, for instance, the coaching industries, they are absolutely saturated.

(03:07):
We've just seen the likes of Tony Robbins. And some other of his friends go out the with the knowledge broker program that he's been selling, talking about how the knowledge broker market is huge and it really, really is. Coaching absolutely is on the up. But with that comes a lot of competition that arrives on the market. And as we know, as I've talked about on this podcast, longevity means absolutely nothing. People can be brand new out the Gates and make a huge difference and a huge splash in the industry from the outsets. While there are people who are very talented and have been in the game a very long time, still trying to sort of make a wave, make a splash. And that's why I exist. For those of you who want to make that wave in the industry, who wants to be notice, you want to be recognized for the significance that you have and what you have to offer your industry and your markets.

(04:09):
You know, that's why I exist. This is why I'm here, because I hate to see great talent being ignored. So today I want to kind of talk about these different ways to differentiate and if you'd like to, after listening to this episode or even now even listening to the podcast for a little while and you're enjoying what you're hearing, you're really making strides with what you're hearing, then do make sure you book a call with me. The link is in the show notes, but it's bit.ly/claritycallpodcast and you can chat to me about how you can start to pull yourself away from being an Apple and actually pulling yourself into being an innocent smoothie instead of really putting yourself out, differentiating yourself as a coach, expert or consultant.

(04:58):
So you can start to really make waves in your industry and become that market leader. So do you make sure you book in that core if that is something that you would like to do? So seven ways to differentiate yourself. Now let's ppick off the first one here and I'm going to leave the last special thing that will trump all of these things until last because that's just what I like to do. I like to keep you on, tend to hertz, but don't skip through because each of these points have its own merits and you should still be looking to make your stamp in each of these areas. But there is one that will absolutely want one to rule them all as they say. So the first one is your kind of style your personality. Now back in the day, for those of you who've been around in the coaching industry for a while now, may have heard of the name Kimra Luna and I say it like she's completely disappeared off the face of the earth.

(05:52):
She has not, she stood around, but she made a huge splash in the market not so long ago, probably about three or four years ago now. And she has a real distinctive personality and identity not only in her kind of like no nonsense approach, but also in the way that she looks and her branding, she's all with the piercings and the, and the, and the, the certain style of clothing should we say, and a certain style of brand. It was a very strong brand. It really appealed to a certain particular niche market. She went absolutely bonkers. Everybody wanted her, you know, on their show, whatever else because she really made a stamp and a very unique way of doing so, using that personality and that really strong visual brand that she had. And doing that I think is great.

(06:45):
And I think there are lots of people around that do that. But the thing is with it is that it's kind of become a very popular way of doing things. And like with everything, people like to jump on the bandwagon when it looks like it's being successful. So many people are using themselves as the USP. And it's just not strong enough every anymore because you are unique just like everybody else's. And so it's a harsh reality that whilst yes, we should be looking to be ourselves, be authentic, you know, have a personality and be the celebrity of our business, we also need to have a business. It's great that you have a personal brand and that's fantastic, but we really need to start thinking in different ways, which is what I'm going to go into into this.

(07:37):
But that is one of the ways in which you can really make a stamp is by really honing in on that personality, finding the things that are different about you. And not necessarily entirely different. And that's the thing when it comes to having a personal brand is that you don't want to make that the completely unique because at the end of the day you want to be relatable. But you do want to make sure that you are really honing in on what makes you you and pulling out each of those elements and putting that out into your visual branding, just like Kimra Luna has shown us that we can do so that comes with hiring great branding professionals. Absolutely. But identifying and knowing who you are first and foremost, looking at how you can start being more relatable, bringing in stories from everyday life and really pushing into that personal brand to show people what you're doing and how it's impacting your life and how it helps, how that can help their lives in their business and so and so forth.

(08:42):
So personal personality and looking at you is a great way to look at differentiating, however everybody's doing it. So it's not the thing that is going to be the kind of the biggest differentiator in your business. It's just part and parcel of the cocktail that makes you and your business unique. The next one on my list is your story. Now, your story will be absolutely unique to you. And we'll have relatable elements again so that people can relate to the story but also feel inspired by it. Now, someone who famously use their story to help create their success is how Hal Elrod, the author and founder of the miracle morning. Now, you're either a massive fan of this or you absolutely hate it when I say that, but I'm somewhere in the middle.

(09:37):
I like the idea of it. But getting up at that time of the morning is a struggle, particularly at this this time saying that I am getting up earlier and taking the dog for a walk these days. When I have Andy on hand to do the school run. But you know what, in the modern world with kids and dogs and other such things, I do wonder how practical it really is right into Janet, Jenn-hall, if you are.com if you are a miracle morning fan or not, I'd like to know, however, he had extreme success with this particular concept of the miracle morning. But part of that success was also using his story. So, he tells the story of a car crash, quite horrific car crash that he went through and came back from and how that changed his life. There are a lot of other elements.

(10:29):
I won't go retelling his story on here. This is kind of besides the point going to look it up if you wanted to go and check out that full deets on that one. But using that story really inspired people to take action and really utilize this miracle morning principle. Again, so many people get caught up in a story being the biggest differentiator. I think last year and even perhaps the year before this was really big. Go big on your story, really push it out there and at the end of the day, it's fab that how has been able to tell this story and not so fab. What was it that he went through it, but fact that he's been able to tell this story and It's inspired so many, but not everybody has been through such horrific crises to be able to go out and sort of tell these kind of stories that do have that in kind of inspiring background.

(11:29):
You know, if you're like me very, you know, you might be very boring. I don't know, you might have a more interesting story. When there are parts to my story and they will argue that there are bits and piecesthat happen in my life and I do use a lot of storytelling within my business, but not necessarily to that extent. I don't have that kind of like prize story that you know, that of like life changing car crash that I have to tell him in particular, most stories are a lot smaller. Now that's not to say because they're smaller, they don't pack a punch and they don't have impact out. So do what you do because if anything, it makes them more relatable. And the more specific and more kind of micro momentous they are the better in terms of it hitting hard with people and actually meaning something to them.

(12:19):
And we really get to the granular level of these things. So don't get hit up on having that kind of like star story that really stands your part. If you have one of those, great, really leverage that and use it. I definitely don't suggest that you what's sometimes called the industry pimp your pain. You know, when people use really painful stories to make money, even though it's completely irrelevant to the thing that they sell, I'm not really up for that. And even going, just as a bit of a side note, what I've seen recently happen particularly on social media is people pimping other people's pain to make profit from it, which was just yuck and really horrible to be quite frank, really using other people's stories to gain attention to themselves in order to then go and sell their thing. Just not cool in my eyes.

(13:06):
But there we go. It's, it's happening. What are we going to do? We're going to behave in, you know, like graceful leaders and set an example about what not to do. So don't get heads up on it on that price story. Absolutely use storytelling within your business is extremely powerful. The evidence is that, don't disregard it. It's very important. But if you don't have a style story, don't be worried about it because it really isn't the main thing. Storytelling is important but having that style story is, it is, is really neither here nor there. If you've got it, great leverage it. That's basically my message on story stuff. But it is one way that you can use to differentiate yourself because at the end of the day, you are you and only you have lived your life. Which again, maybe relatable, but you've got a very unique story to tell this personal to you, which can help to stick in those people's minds.

(14:00):
That's why people use storytelling at the end of the day because it really is something that makes what you do more memorable and also makes everything easier to understand as well when you use relatable stories as well. The next way I'd like to talk about in terms of differentiating yourself is customer service. Now, this is something that is actually very underused as a differentiator but can make a really powerful impact. Now, we use something called BombBomb in our adventure travel company ever track, which is basically a video that is embedded inside of an email. And these ways of interacting with customers have landed us five star reviews on Google before they even actually stepped foot on a trip with us. People are so bowled over by receiving this email, with this video in it that's personalized to that and personalized being the key here that they are in phatic about the company they're already bought in because we're building relationships in a different way to how that particularly industry really builds relationships with their customers.

(15:21):
It just isn't really done. So we're able to differentiate through our customer service in that way. People feel like they know us. In fact, there is a little bit of a running joke in the office because we've got the front runners at the minute which Andy you know, the MD and then we've got Dave who is, you know, a very close number two in the company who is our, they're kind of all go to adventure experts that we have at the moment. We're looking to recruit further on that front, but because Andy so kind of prolific out there on video and they're able to get to know us in that way that they constantly mistake Dave andRandy. They do look a little bit similar to be fair, but though we have this joke, we've got like kind of like collating a list of screenshots of the thanks Andy.
(16:18):

When blast Dave, he's trying to speak to people. Andy and Dave are just one one person, but they do feel like they get to know us because we are constantly putting ourselves out there on video and giving this very personalized experiences. And that's the thing, you know, when it comes to customer service, we've kind of gone a little bit the other way, particularly in the consultancy online marketing arena. We've really kind of gone to the blanket marketing approach, which is great and if you want to reach the masses, be, we have to embrace that in some way. But because we've done that, it's massively diluted the impact of customer service and it's really kind of removed and a big wall up between you and the customer. So as much as we possibly can, we need to start to personalize more.

(17:13):
And so we want to use the blend of technology and personalization as much as possible. Another way in which we really bring personalized customer service to people is by just creating. We have these trip planners which are a huge differentiator in our industry because no one else is using them. But we put people's names on the front of them. Now that's technology that does that. We don't sit there and hand dry out their names, can people book in that all of that data's collected, sent off to our supplier that then just presses a button and that everyone's name is printed out on it. So we're able to market or mass and, and create or mass, but yet we can do that with a click of the button using technology. So I think that really is the key moving forward in the future is to really find that sweet spot between, yes, using technology and being able to mass market, but also making it as personal as we possibly can.

(18:17):
Really sort of putting the effort back into doing that. When people take the time to reach out to you personally take the time to, to reach back out to them personally as well. Don't fob it off to somebody else. That personal touch really makes a difference that they can actually speak to the people at the top. That makes a huge difference to them. So make sure that you're doing that and you're keeping it as personal as possible when it comes to your customer service and really going the extra mile because I feel like we've lost that a little bit. And I think by really going back to that basic premise of customer service, it can really help you to stand out. Now, I'm gonna talk about a few ways now in which are ways to differentiate, but I wouldn't necessarily recommend doing.

(19:06):
The first big one on that list is price. You know, you start competing on price, you start trying to differentiate in that area. It's a losing battle. I really would put, make that a back seat. You're gonna end up driving down your pricing and running around. And particularly for kind of the coaching and consulting expert industry, the more you do that, particularly if you're giving one to one services, there is a time element involved in what you're doing. I really wouldn't recommend doing that because you're gonna end up hitting burnout and also undervaluing your services. At the end of the day, people need to pay what it's worth. And if you start cutting corners and you start competing on price, you're just going to end up making yourself look cheap. People are going to start being suspicious about what they're getting. So really have a good think about your pricing and making sure that you don't always have to be high ticket, high end, but also do make sure that you are pricing yourself fairly for what it's worth.

(20:10):
I never recommend going competing on price and you'll be hard pushed to find people that have. You've got things like airlines, Ryanair that have competed on price and so it was easy jet. That low cost airlines but they still trump Ryanair every time because of the ease of their processes. They were the first to do it. And that's not the only thing that they differentiate on. And I think actually Ryanair might even trump easy jet on their pricing on some points. But personally I would avoid flying with, with Ryanair, that's a personal choice. Due to some of the operational elements, I would much prefer to fly with easy jet because of how they run. I wouldn't say that easy jet is their only differentiator is on price.

(21:04):
Yes, they are low cost but they are still higher than others and they also differentiate in other areas as the are a benefit to their customers. So have a think about price, make sure it's priced fairly for what it's worth. Price competitively, absolutely if you want to. But don't use it as the main differentiator. Now, the next thing which may surprise you is I'm going to talk about differentiating via your niche. Now, I'm not saying that's not a great way to do it. Absolutely, yes. However, you're going to be hard push these days to find an entirely blue ocean that doesn't have anyone else doing what you do in it. It doesn't matter how far you niche down, how much you micro-niche. Most markets are so saturated. There will always be someone else doing the similar thing to you.

(21:53):
Now, that's not to say that you shouldn't be niche. You absolutely should. One of the biggest ways that you're going to make an impact in the market and be able to dominate a market is by microniching. By doing that, you remain relevant and relevance is key to the future of your business. You have to be relevant and so microniching and initialing is critical to the success of doing that, so you absolutely do have to do it. Just like you also have to be the celebrity of your business. While you also have to have a personal brand, you also have to have a business brand. You need to be using storytelling in your business. You need to be, in order to be a market leader, you need to be focusing on giving incredible customer surface. Absolutely. All of these things are part of the puzzle that you need to be focusing on, but it's not going to be your biggest differentiator because at the end of the day, other people are going to be serving that market with similar things.

(22:51):
You cannot find that blue ocean entirely, but still, you must, must, must micro-niche. But don't let that be your only differentiator. The next way that you can differentiate is using a business model. So delivering what your industry delivers in a different way. So you've seen the ways of things have moved and everybody started to kind of move to this cold membership models become very, very popular to use. But that's obviously not a big differentiator these days because everybody's using the same business models. But if you're in a particular industry where you're seeing, so for instance, in the fitness industry, memberships are huge. They're absolutely huge. But if you can really define a particular ideal client where the membership model actually isn't suiting them and you're able to create a different model, a different way of delivering your services to that market, that benefits there more so than that's going to be another way that's going to stand you apart from other people.

(24:03):
So it's yet another way that you can start to differentiate. So it's worth having a look at to see if that, if there's a way of doing it. It's not always the case. That you can do that and you know, don't be changing your business model because entirely for to suit the market. Cause the end of the day, your business is a bit of both. It has to see the business model has to suit you in the way you want it to divert that it also has to benefit your market as well. But if you can really define a model that works for both of you in a more beneficial way, that is different to how the industry is currently serving the market than do that because that's going to really pull you apart from everybody else, which leads me on to the last but not least way of differentiating, which will trump everything else in this list.

(24:50):
I don't want it to because they're still all important to focus on. However, what I would like you to do more than anything else is create a unique magic bullet. Now, I think this is the first episode in this series of podcast episodes where I talk about this, but I wanted to really bring it up again today because it's so important. If you want to dominate your market, if you want to be a market leader and really stand out and make waves in your industry, then finding that unique magic button, which is a solid USP. It's a concrete USP. It is the unique way in which you help your market, your ideal clients. That is the way that's going to be entirely unique to you that nobody else can copy because it's intellectual property. Now, let me just quickly explain.

(25:44):
It's not your signature program. Yes, you need a signature program. It's very important. But that's not what your UMB, your unique magic bullet. That's not what that is. Your unique magic bullet is your unique mechanism that is the science behind why that system, why that signature program works, the thing that's within it. And so we need to be able to give this science a name. We need to make it be able to make it tangible and to make it a key reason as to why people will get the results that they want to get. So this can also take the form of some kind of concepts that we talked about Ral Elrod earlier on and his miracle morning that I guess is a UMB is a unique magic bullet because it's a concept that's tangible. And it really is the science behind how it works, why all of the other elements that he pulls together works is because of this particular concept.

(26:44):
You've also got Todd Herman who talks about the alter ego effect. That's yet another concept that people could use. I've had a client of mine come up with something called key to fast, which is a combination of different dieting techniques, pull together the bathroom, all of the worlds to pull together to create a another kind of bullet that will help people achieve those weight loss goals that they want to. And so it's coming up with these unique ways that they can't get anywhere else and it becomes something that you are known for that really makes waves in your industry, really gets the attention of other market leaders, gets the attention of your industry partners and those, the key persons of influence and gets the attention most importantly from your market who will want to buy from you because they will want to get hold of firsts.

(27:43):
In a service based industry that's something we need to start doing is productizing as much as possible, making it tangible. I'm saying people aren't doing it enough. Great for you guys because 90% of people are not doing it, which means the 10% that do are going to end up standing out above everybody else. And that's how you're going to be able to differentiate moving forward is by creating these unique magic bullets that you know are tangible or solid, makes sense. There's science behind it, there's integrity behind it, and it can become these concepts that you become known for. More so than anything else. That can be your key differentiator. That's something that you can be entirely unique on because so many people are took going out there talking about USP. Do you know, they've morphed out of being a USP.

(28:37):
It keeps saying, well, you are the USP. No, that's only part of it. You cannot rely on you as a USP anymore. The markets are far too saturated for you to rely on that. We need to start thinking about how we can start putting ourselves apart. Using for instance, the Dyson, they had that unique magic bullet. The bar less vacuums with their special cyclin system. That was their unique magic, but there was science behind it and a relatively dull industry of creating vacuums and Hoovers interestingly enough, who values the word hebrew all the time. It's actually a brand name, but I will still pick Dyson over Hoover because of that, you know, inevitably pioneering new solution that they've brought to the market. And that's what we need to be creating for our markets. Really thinking about how can we bring these new solutions to the market in order to make a) a splash but b) create something groundbreaking is going to make a big difference to people's lives and businesses.

(29:45):
So that is a thing that I want you to focus most on in 2020 and that's creating that unique magic bullet, that unique way the science behind how you help people and making that tangible by productizing it. And if that's something you would like to do and you would like to talk to me about creating, then please do just book a call with me. Link is in the show notes, but it's bit.ly/claritycallpodcast. And I would be more than happy to speak with you and I'm really looking forward to speaking with you next week on our next topic. And you'll also notice that I'm going to be delivering some interviews with other market leaders, people who are striving to become a market leader, people who have their own unique magic bullets. I'm really diving into what they're doing as well over the coming months. Stay tuned for that. I'll give you more information as it arises, but I'm really excited to speak to them and I'm really excited to share these interviews with you. I hope you are too. Again, any feedback, any questions that you've got that you'd like to ask me, then please do jen@jen-hall.com ping me an email and I would love to hear from you.