As a B2B company owner, you might get stuck thinking your product doesn’t have any benefit edge vs. your competitors. There is always a competitive edge of your product or service that you can offer to your potential customers. It’s just that you might not be aware of it. It could be that you’re too much into the product that you sell, its features, and functionalities that you do not see a broader picture. You know the saying: “In the forest, you see trees but not the forest.”
Let’s say you did a thorough job comparing all traits of your product with a competitive one, and you couldn’t find any benefit edge. Fine, let’s assume you are selling exactly the same product or service and have the same potential customers as your competitor. How can you find something distinctive to attract your customer’s interest to choose your product over theirs?
Move your focus from WHAT you sell to HOW you sell it. Think of how you, as a company, can contribute to better performance, moving away from pure product attributes. Of course, the key player is still your product, but it is not the only one.
Here are 4 things you might take a closer look at:
- Shape your offer to be relevant for your customers: don’t just list your product’s features, better include benefits that provide a solution and bring value, choose compelling messages, use the tone of communication that resonates with them, add a call to actions that trigger activation
- Channels (online and offline): being limited to just a few channels doesn’t bring enough buzz for your brand. Explore all media channels that could work to get in touch with your customers, like digital platforms, social media, call center for the customers’ support, fairs, events, etc
- People: they are the biggest asset you can hold as a B2B company. They are in direct contact (many times the only contact) with your customers. Skill them up. You would be surprised how many choose your product over the competition just because they feel connected with your particular salesperson (but be careful; it also goes in another direction)
- ‘Pampering’ your client: it is known that it is more challenging to get new clients than to keep current ones. But of course, having them doesn’t ensure you will also keep them long-term unless you keep on bringing value to them. Meaning you have to find different ways to enrich your cooperation, like offering them treats that bring added value, inviting them to your events, asking them for feedback for you to improve, making them feel worthy to you; there are plenty of things you can do
Have a brainstorming with your wider team to develop ideas on how you can attract new customers and spice up your cooperation with current ones. This will, for sure, bring you a competitive edge.
