What Distinguishes You From Your Competitors

by Catherine Franz

Published on this site: August 30th, 2005 - See more articles from this month

Even after going through the regular method of finding out what was unique about several of my products and services, I still found it difficult to name them. Because of this I developed a list of 50 questions to help me in easy to answer format.

Always compare apples to apples at least as closely as possible. Open your mind to the fact that somewhere there is a similar guaranteed. Find the similar, or as closely related to, competitors product/service. Sit down with their product or service material and review it line by line. Look for an apple with the same target market. Narrow down to one. If a service, chose a successful service provider, higher revenue generation, with the same target market.

Here are the 50 questions. Allow product and service to mean the same for simplicity sake.

1. Make a list of their product benefits?
   
   
2. What are the benefits your product offers?
   
   
3. Identify the features they have that you don't have?
   
   
4. Identify the features that you have? Compare.
   
   
5. What features are better in their product.
   
   
6. What features are better in yours?
   
   
7. Why are they better (from a buyers perspective)?
   
   
8. What is their price?
   
   
9. What is your price?
   
   
10. Why is your price different?
    
    
11. What emotional needs/desires does your product meet?
    
    
12. What physical needs/desires does your product meet?
    
    
13. Does your product sell better at different times of the year? And if so, why?
    
    
14. Are any of your competitors local? If so, where are they?
    
    
    
15. What is the size of your competitors business?
    
    
16. Where is this competitor marketing? Find their ads, always keep them in your file.
    
    
17. What age and gender are they marketing to? Is the same as yours?
    
    
18. What income level are they marketing to? What are you marketing to?
    
    
19. What type of customer care do they offer? Research and find out.
    
    
20. What type of customer care are you going to offer? Whats different about your customer care or how can it be?
    
    
21. Do you offer a special type of advice that they don't? If so, what?
    
    
22. If you offer confidentiality, in what ways do you offer this?
    
    
23. How is your confidentiality different than your competitors? Or is it the same?
    
    
24. How fast does your competitor fulfill orders?
    
    
25. What type of answers do they have for their product? Do they offer a FAQ (frequently asked question page)?
    
    
26. How fast do they answer questions? Submit one and find out.
    
    
27. Do they offer a range of payment methods or are they limited? What will be yours?
    
    
28. What is their customer service policy? Write yours and know the difference.
    
    
29. How many ways can people contact them?
    
    
30. What are their "availability" hours?
    
    
31. Do they offer product discounts? What are their break points?
    
    
32. How do they ship? Is it fr*ee or discounted in some way?
    
    
33. Do they offer value-added incentives? This could be in the form of complimentary documentation or time, newsletters, or other items. What can you offer that is better?
    
    
34. Do they offer gifts? Are they special or common? What do customers have to purchase to get them?
    
    
35. Create a list of unique, customer valued gifts, that you might use make theirs eat dust?
    
    
36. What special skills do their employees offer? What are yours?
    
    
37. Does their staff have some special type of training? Do you or can you get?
    
    
38. What makes you excited about selling this product?
    
    
39. How long have they been in business? Where are they on the product maturity line? Where are you?
    
    
40. If you haven't been in business as long, can you explain your quick success?
    
    
41. What do customers say about them? What do yours say? Similar is good but unique statements help more.
    
    
42. What statistics do you have on your product that you can use to show your uniqueness?
    
    
43. Do they have any celebrity endorsements? You can you get that is already known by your customers?
    
    
44. How many ways does the product change people life styles or mindset?
    
    
45. How long does their product last by the customer? And yours?
    
    
46. Where is the product in the trend line with customers?
    
    
47. How frequently does your competitor introduce something new in order to stay on the cutting edge? And you?
    
    
48. How fast can they get their product to their customers? Can you do better?
    
    
49. Were they the first in developing this product? How long ago was that? Do you have newness as an advantage?
    
    
50. Location can be a key. Where is your office or distribution house located? Can you create more than one location? Do they have other locations?

Everyone wants to eat at restaurants that have the most cars outside? They trust that if other people are eating there, they have to have good food. What can you do to have the most cars in your parking lot?

Catherine Franz, multibusiness owner, previous CPA, veteran entrepreneur, speaker, marketing expert, author: http://www.AbundanceCenter.com