“Clarity around the uniqueness of a company, its root source of competitive advantage, sounds like an obvious requirement to run a business … but in our experience, this is not as common as you might think.”
— Quote from “Repeatability”

In their book “Repeatability,” Chris Zook and James Allen analyzed the characteristics of companies that experienced repeatable, sustained growth over time. One of those characteristics was having what they call a “well-differentiated core.”

Chris and James dedicated an entire chapter to differentiation and it’s critical importance to long-term success. The reason they dove so deep into this topic is because their research showed most business leaders do not spend enough time crystallizing their core points of difference, aligning the executive team around what those core differentiators are and communicating their company’s distinct points of difference consistently — inside and outside of the organization. More specifically they state …

“In our experience most businesses do not have a very good handle on their real, measurable source of differentiation; have not put the pieces together explicitly; have not collected the data in a rigorous manner; and do not talk about it that much.”

Every industry is becoming more and more competitive, crowded and noisy. That’s why, now — more than ever — you must clearly define what makes your company different if you want to break through the noise, capture the attention of your target audience and accelerate growth.

  • Do you know what your true points of differentiation are?
  • What about your leaders? Are you all fully aligned?
  • Does your corporate story clearly and consistently communicate these points of difference?
  • Are your employees able to bring these points of difference to life in the customer experience?

If not, it is time to step back, stop down and clearly define your competitive advantage, meaningful points of difference and unique value proposition. Then invest the time, resources and dollars required to pull those points of difference throughout your entire corporate story and customer experience.

That’s Your OnMessage Minute.