Electric Heating Co., Inc

Different From Your Competition

Last week we discussed forgetting an orientation of trying to be better than your competition and adopting a focus of differentiation ... being different from your competition. Focusing all of your strategic thinking, goal setting and actions on building a better process or better relationships is the surest and maybe simplest way to create a true competitive advantage to which a customer will respond. Leaning on your 5% better price will leave you susceptible to the loss of your account on the next time the contract goes out for bid.

I had a discussion yesterday with a distributor who has a customer who constantly asks why one of his other customers is so successful with their process. He told the customer that he should use our heaters and went through the cost of heating justification. He didn't close the customer, but he told me that he eventually will. The customer is buying cheaper heaters and this distributor is convinced that he will eventually win out. His continued insistence on the right decision by his customer will eventually form an unshakable relationship.

Creating your own special way to treat customers, creating an experience that’s unique, or creating a totally new and frictionless way for people to get a result is how you stand out from the pack. It’s how you create a difference that can’t be easily copied. Better product, better process and better relationship are the keys to differentiation. Consider these two questions to initiate the process: 1) What are we able to do that our competitors are not? 2) What are we doing just like our competitors that we could change for good?

Friday Funnies

After being laid off from five different jobs in four months, Arnold was hired by a warehouse. One day he lost control of a forklift and drove it off the loading dock. Surveying the damage, the owner shook his head and said he'd have to withhold ten percent of Arnold's wages to pay for the repairs.

"How much will it cost?" asked Arnold. "About $4,500," said the owner. "What a relief!" exclaimed Arnold. 'I've finally got job security!"

Dalton Electric Heating Co., Inc (978)356-9844
28 Hayward Street Ipswich, MA 01938 USA

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