Most B2B services are commodities.

There are thousands of developers, recruiters, manufacturers, IoT providers, infrastructure-as-code providers, designers, accountants, lawyers, consultants, and fractional C-suite executives your customers can choose from. And all of them can be found in seconds with a simple Google or ChatGPT search.

So most companies try to stand out by being ‘better.’

Better quality, better tech, caring about their customers more, faster delivery, easier interface, or, the trend we’re seeing now, powered by AI.

But they’re still struggling to be chosen.

Because ‘better’ is subjective. It positions you as an option — doing the same thing your competitors do, with just one small addition.

And that small addition isn’t enough to give you money.

The best way to stop being a commodity? Find a differentiator that your customers actually care about.

Where to Find Your Differentiator

Brand differentiation is the process of establishing a unique, compelling value proposition that your ideal customers care about and your competitors can’t or won’t copy.

Real brand differentiation sits at the intersection of three things:

• What your business does exceptionally well. Repeatable, reliable, something you can deliver 99% of the time.
• What your competitors can’t or won’t do. Not just don’t offer, but physically can’t because of their structure, or won’t because it conflicts with their model.
• What your ideal customers actually want or need. Something enticing enough to get them to want to buy.

Being different isn’t enough.

I could show up to every client workshop dressed as a clown. It’s different. No other brand strategist is doing that.

But it’s not something my ideal customers care about or would buy. If anything, it would deter them from working with me. Who wants to trust a consultant who dresses like a clown?

If your customers don’t care about your differentiator, you aren’t different in the right way.

How to Find a Differentiator Your Customers Care About

Here’s how I find differentiators that resonate with my clients’ ideal customers. Steal this process to find yours.

Step 1: List Industry Frustrations

List everything a customer puts up with in your category.

Document the good, the bad, and the ugly — everything your ideal customers find annoying, frustrating, or even hate about other vendors in your industry.

Include the things that you do that they hate.

Organize your ideas in a table with the following columns:

• Frustrations
• Customer Voiced
• Pain Level (1-5)
• How We Solve

Only fill out that first column in this step. You’ll return to the other columns in later steps.

Step 2: Ask Your Customers

Next, ask your best customers which frustration from your table they’d pay to make disappear.

Interview them to find out what they hate about your industry and how painful those frustrations are.

If your customer voiced a frustration you already had in your table, place an X in the ‘Customer Voiced’ column. This will help you quickly see which frustrations your customers feel.

Then, ask them to rate how painful they find those frustrations. Place that number in the ‘Pain Level’ column.

Look through that list and circle any frustrations that your customers voiced and have a pain level of 4 or above.

Your frustrations table should look something like this after your interviews:

Remember, this process is too important to leave to assumptions. Don’t skip customer interviews. You won’t find a differentiator they actually care about if you do.

Step 3: Map Your Process

Next, map your process from onboarding to offboarding to find any steps that kill the deeply held frustrations your customers mentioned above.

Use a whiteboard (like this free Miro template) to:

• List your deliverables
• Map out your process steps
• Indicate what’s included in each step
• Explain why you do each step

Most founders and marketers never fully map out their process and thus miss a key differentiator that their customers actually care about.

Once you have it mapped out, ask yourself these questions:

• What already alleviates the pain points from above?
• What could you improve to alleviate it?
• What are your competitors NOT doing?

That’s the sweetspot for a differentiator.

Step 4: Test that Differentiator

Next, it’s time to test that differentiator.

There are two tests we use at Shft to ensure a differentiator is something our clients’ customers want and that their competitors can’t or won’t do.

Both tests can be found in the Miro Whiteboard.

Opposite Test

Take your differentiator and write down its opposite. Then ask: Is that opposite a viable reason for someone to buy?

If yes, you have a differentiator!
If no, go back to the drawing board.

Can’t Won’t Test

Create a table with your competitors down the left side and two columns, “Your differentiator” and “Why”.

Then, work down the table and mark each competitor with:

• Can’t: This competitor could not copy our differentiator even if they wanted to
• Won’t: This competitor would not copy our differentiator even if they could
• X: This competitor could or would copy our differentiator

List your reasons for your mark in the Why column.

This helps you determine if your differentiator is something your competitors can’t or won’t do.

Step 5: Own Your Differentiator

Lastly, it’s time to turn that step in your process into your differentiator.

• Give it a name
• Adjust your offer around it
• Make it visible in messaging and marketing

Everything in your business should revolve around that one thing your ideal customers care about and your competitors can’t or won’t copy.

Shft’s Example

The steps above are how I found a differentiator for Shft that our ideal customers care about.

When I talked to our best customers, I found that they hated the personality adjectives, archetypes, purpose statements, and vague feelings that the branding industry is known for.

Many had paid big bucks to a branding agency that handed over some adjectives and a new design that did not make them any more money.

So, I mapped out our process and found we do something our competitors don’t.

Shft creates brand operating systems.

Differentiators, messaging, marketing, content, sales, and operational experiences that our clients could implement to make money and own a position in the market.

It’s why we changed our Onlyness Brand System to the BrandOS.

Our customers think in terms of operating systems. They’re nerdy (aka COOL) like that.

We even wrapped our entire offer and brand around it — including our new Brand Your How messaging, AI markdown files, and our Google Doc deliverables. Everything that communicates that we build an operating system, not a fluffy brand document.

All of that came from the process above.

Be Different in the Right Way

Your ideal customers don’t want another commodity service.

They want a clear and compelling reason to choose you — something that communicates the transformation that matters to them. (And, no, it’s not that you care.)

Follow those steps above to differentiate your business around something your ideal customers actually want or need.

You’ll make it easier for them to choose you and give you money.

Struggling to find that differentiator?

​Book a Strategy Workshop with me. In 90 minutes, we’ll uncover the thing you do that makes your business unique and give you ideas on how to turn it into a unique position in the market.

Until next week,

#SassyJason out.

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