We will acknowledge that it is the availability of substitutes – the legitimate alternatives to the offerings of our product – that allows the client to ask, and compels us to give, our thinking away for free. If we are not seen as more expert than our competition then we will be viewed as one in a sea of many, and we will have little power in our relationships with our clients and prospects.
The world does not need another generalist product offering firm. There are enough full service product companies out there from which client can choose from. The world is drowning in undifferentiated creative product businesses.
What the world needs, what the better clients are willing to pay for, and what our people want to develop and deliver, is deep expertise. Expertise is the only valid basis for differentiating ourselves from the competition. Not personality. Not process. Not price.
It is expertise and expertise alone that will set us apart in a meaningful way and allow us to deal with our clients and prospects from a position of power.
When the alternatives to hiring us are many, the client will dictate price. He will set the terms of the engagement. He will determine how many of our ideas and how much of our advice we need to part with, for free, in order to decide if he will choose to work with us. It is first through positioning our firm that we begin to shift the power in the buy-sell relationship and change the way our services are bought and sold.
Positioning is the foundation of business development success, and of business success. If we fail on this front we face a long, costly uphill journey as owners of creative businesses.
Your expertise is not understanding or explaining your process to clients, but to understand your end customer problems and offer expertise. That creates whole difference in business.
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