How to Differentiate Yourself from Competitors

When your customers are swimming in a sea of sameness, can you save them from drowning?

We became interested in how differentiated companies were in their marketing communications because credible research we found while writing our book, Value-ology: Aligning Sales and Marketing to Shape and Deliver Profitable Value Propositions, pointed to customers typically being 60% of the way through the buying process before they contact a salesperson (CEB research) at which time 67% of the customers have a clear picture of the solution they want (Sirius Decisions).

The fact that the first 60% of the sales cycle is now spent interacting with company marketing communications through internet searches, company web sites, Twitter feeds and the like, places an extra onus on marketing to make it clear to customers why their organisation is better and different from competitors in ways that have relevance for those customers.