The
Marketplace MasterTM
is a monthly email publication on professional service
marketing from Expertise Marketing, LLC.
About This Issue
Differentiation is one of the most powerful initiatives
a firm can pursue to achieve success in its marketplace.
This month we cover the basics of why professional
service firms should attempt to differentiate
themselves.
Talk Back: We want to hear
your feedback on the issues raised by these
newsletters. See below for last month's Talk
Back feedback. 
Suzanne
Lowe
Author, Marketplace Masters: How Professional
Service Firms Compete to Win
President, Expertise Marketing, LLC
Why Differentiate
Your Firm?
Differentiation helps firms break out of the
pack and respond to clients in new and innovative
ways. According to our research, the three most
commonly-mentioned reasons for pursuing differentiation
are:
- Respond to increased competition
- Respond to commoditization of core services
- Meet client need for new services, or increased
or changed client expectations.
The firms we have talked to were highly cognizant
of the pressures of remaining competitive in a
rapidly-evolving marketplace.
|
|
|
Some are at the "desire" or "reactive"
stage. Others, however, are at the "must overcome"
or "proactive" stage. Any of the situations
listed in the bullets above are enough to make or break
a professional service firm.
Other reasons for pursuing differentiation include:
- Take advantage of new or specific market opportunity.
- Show value to avoid price competition.
- Get out of an over-saturated market by moving to
new services or other differentiation.
- Overcome clients' perception of firm limitations.
- Build a true advantage not perceived in the market.
- Desire to grow or expand the business.
Firms tell us things like:
"At a trade show...our exhibits were indistinguishable...
There was no real way to tell one from another."
"We were being lumped together with our competitors..."
"A question that we constantly get from prospective
clients is 'how are you different?' or 'why are you
better than the other firms we are looking at?'"
Greater competition gives clients more choices. If
a professional service firm offers essentially the same
services as its competitors, clients soon realize they
are able to buy based on price. This situation is exacerbated
during economic downturns. Differentiation, done right,
can help firms overcome the commoditization of their
services and compete on a more favorable playing ground.
Today's professional service buyers are sophisticated,
well-informed, and impatient. We predict this trend
will only become more pronounced as buyers increase
their scrutiny of professional service providers and
become more demanding.
Our research has found that some differentiation strategies
are more successful than others. Operationally “shallow”
differentiation strategies may be a waste of your firm’s
precious money, resources and optimal competitive timing.
Take the confidential, web-based Marketplace Masters
professional
service firm differentiation assessment test for
instant feedback on whether your firm is doing differentiation
right.
Interested in reading more? Send a note to info@expertisemarketing.com
to ask for a copy of our differentiation case study
on Malcolm Pirnie,
Inc.
 |
Talk
Back
Last month we heard from Mark S. Bonchek, Ph.D.,
Managing Director, Tapestry
Networks, a Waltham, Massachusetts firm
that helps design and produce systematic programs
for trusted, peer-to-peer exchange among C-level
executives.
"The principles of Marketplace Mastery
should be familiar to us as professionals.
After all, many of us have spent our careers
helping clients be – to quote the last
newsletter:
- Better prepared to face changes in the
market
- More adept at maneuvering around short-term
crises
- Ready to make decisive, informed decisions
about marketplace
opportunities
- Capable of taking incremental steps that
prove right over the
long-term
What is unfamiliar is that as professionals
we often don’t take our own advice.
Perhaps we should treat ourselves
as if we were clients?"
How about your firm? We want to hear your thoughts
and observations, and feature your firm in an
upcoming issue. Write to us at talkback@marketplacemasters.com.
|
 |
 |
 |
Your feedback is important to us. Please contact
us with your comments and questions.
© 2004 Expertise
Marketing, LLC All Rights
Reserved |
