What is your differentiator?

Recently, I asked that question of a small business owner, and it stopped her dead in her tracks. Her jaw practically dropped open. She blinked at me. Finally, she composed herself and blurted out, “We suck less than the other guys.”

We shared a good laugh over that, but she was joking about the truth, and we both knew it. Her entire marketing strategy was predicated on, “You’ve tried the rest; now give us a try. You probably won’t be sorry.”

Yikes. That certainly doesn’t inspire me to buy from them. I’m not so sure her employees could find much to be inspired about, either – and it showed, through high turnover and difficulty finding quality applicants at hiring time.

Needless to say, this entrepreneur wasn’t that crazy about her business. She and her partner were dying to sell, in fact. The problem was, the way things were going, they’d be lucky if they could recoup their investment with that sale. In other words, things weren’t going that well for her company.

But my differentiator question (which I ask often) got her thinking. “That’s a good question,” she said – and I could tell her mind was already at work on how she could answer, if she changed things a bit. Seeing as it was a customer service expert who asked her that question, she was already headed in the direction I had intended: how could she make her company stand out through the customer service it provided?

That’s my question for you, too. What is your company’s differentiator? Or are you pretty much the same as all the others?

If your industry is still in its infancy, or if you have a rock-solid patent on a brand-new, life-altering technology, then your answer very well may be that Product is what differentiates you from the pack. If so, enjoy. And start planning for that day, not far in the future, when your product has turned from something unique to a commodity.

Or maybe Price is what sets you apart. That seems to work for Walmart. If you’re not Walmart, I’d say that any time you compete on price, you’re in a race to the bottom – and in that kind of a competition, everyone loses.

My advice? Forget about price. When you Spoil ‘em Rotten, your clients will gladly pay more just for the pleasure of doing business with you. They’ll travel out of their way for you. They’ll bring you their friends. You’ll wonder why everyone doesn’t do it the Five-Star way!

Or you can compete on price and service, and you’ll sow up the market. Each of the ten companies we feature in Make Your Company a H.I.T. wins this way: be it IT solutions, banking, groceries, or home health care (to name just a few), we chose only Five-Star firms that were priced in line with the other guys.

…And rather than “sucking less,” all of these companies stands for something – the same exact thing – that sets them above the crowd and, in so doing, makes them extraordinarily prosperous.

What thing is that? It’s an absolute obsession with Delighting the Customer. This Customer Service Ethic isn’t just first and foremost; it’s first, last, and all in between, too.

What is your differentiator? Product? Price? Or is it Customer Delight?