Attracting and converting high-paying customers requires one thing:
Proper differentiation.
Far too many founders, CEOs, and even marketers get differentiation wrong.
They either choose lazy differentiations, like personality, quality, their team, awards, or the 'fact' that they care — basic requirements of doing business.
Or they go off the deep end and be different in a way that no one cares about.
Proper differentiation lies in the middle.
Being Different
Your differentiator is found at the intersection of:
- What you and your team do exceptionally well
- What your ideal customers want or need
- What your competitors can't or won't do (or say!)
Being different just be different isn't enough.
Take me.
I could show up to every workshop dressed as a clown.
No other brand strategist does that (yes, I've checked). So, I could make it my differentiator.
But what client in their right mind would want that?
Yes, dressing as a clown is different. But it doesn't matter to my ideal customers.
So, how do you find a differentiation that actually matters?
Try this exercise ↓
All Some None Exercise
I call it the All Some None Exercise.
Here's how it works:
- Create 3 columns on a sheet of paper
- Label the columns: All, Some, None
- Look at what you and your competitors do
- Make notes in each column
Here's what to put in each column:
- All: everyone in the industry does it (non-negotiable)
- Some: a few in the industry do it (premium)
- None: only you do it (differentiated)
And by "it," I mean your offer, process, deliverable, or repeatable result.
Your differentiation lies in the None column — something you do that none of the rest of the competition does.
Download the worksheet to help you run this exercise.
What's Your Differentiation?
Will this exercise alone uncover your differentiation?
Maybe. Maybe not.
But it does help you uncover something you DO that your competitors can't or won't do.
And that's one key element of proper differentiation.
Until next week,
#SassyJason out.
✌🏼