How are you different from your competition?

Whenever I ask small business owners this question, I'm always intrigued by the answers I hear. From "cheaper" or "great service" to "we've been established the longest". I've even heard people naming their competition and insulting them. Let's have a look at some of these points:

Cheaper - if you're cheaper, ask yourself the question of why. It's very unlikely that I'm going to use all of your competitors, just to find out you're the cheapest one is it? Just because you are cheaper, there is absolutely no guarantee that's going to get you more customers and in fact if you are cheaper, you're going to have to get more customers. To give you an example - let's imagine your target is £100. If you charge £20, you would need 5 customers to get to your target. If however, you charged £50, you would only need 2 and if you charged £100 you would only need 1. When you're starting out, charge the same as most of your competition and then work on building your reputation so that you can put your prices up.

Great Service - to be honest with you, if I was going to use your products or service, I would expect you to have great service. This isn't good enough as a reason to stand out.

Been Established the Longest - so? I don't care how long you've been established as long as you can supply me with what I want and do so with great service. If however, your experience shone through, that might impress me.

Insulting your competitors - not a good idea. I'm not sure how willing I'd be to work with you if you had just insulted a competitor. You don't know who I know and for all you know, my best friend may be the owner of a company you're talking about.

So how can you stand out? The easiest and quickest way to stand out from your competition is to let your passion for your business shine through and strive to do your very best by your customers and your staff. Think about what you would get out of bed for in a morning without being paid and this is what your passion is - and this is how you stand out from your competition.