Be different: or, one-way to approach ‘differentiation’
We’ve all been told ‘differentiate or die’…so how are you different, and what exactly are you different to?
What follows is a ludicrous case study, but I promise to sew it all together if you make it to the end of this blog.
F1 racecars are complicated, super-performing vehicles on and in which everything must contribute to an aggressive overall outcome. Each component must do its part; it must play its role in producing the desired outcome.
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But let’s say the guy in charge of tires needed some new ones urgently. So he fires up the truck, runs up to the local tire shop and picks up the tires that are on sale that day. Hey, a tire is a tire, right?
Well there is virtually no chance that the local tire guy has the right tire for the rims, or vehicle. And there’s no way that even if the pit crew could mount them on the car the car would perform as desired.
The point is, just because you can do something it doesn’t mean you should.
But, in a lot of cases, our potential clients are doing just that with their technology system purchases, and that creates an opportunity for us and our industry suppliers to exploit.
Any casual viewer of the current consumer electronic and technology sector will immediately observe that for the most part, people simply buy components and use them in systems.
And the vast sums squandered marketing CE and technology amplifies this.
Go to any ‘super store’ or online shop and see what and how the retail industry sells them. From what we can see, the retail channel sells a minimum based performance spec for an aggressive price.
Any single component purchased has little or no value, until it is installed into a larger system. For example, an AVR needs an audio source and some speakers, and for a true surround type experience they will need a video display and some type of subscription internet and TV streaming service.
Integrators could then deepen the quality with lighting, shading, room acoustic treatments and an automation ease-of-use element, layered throughout, to organise the whole mess.
Distancing yourself from the crowd is generally very desirable. Many have stated, for decades, that in today’s technology contracting arena contractors must differentiate themselves from the mass market.
Well, there has never been a better time to perfect the art of differentiation.
You know you will be asked “Why is your Samsung TV more expensive then Costco or Wal-Mart?”, and “Why does your Luxul or Ruckus network cost $2,000, when I can get a Netgear router online for less than $130?”
We all know this is coming, so how have you scripted your response?
Today’s differentiation tip: Move away from selling components and focus on selling systems.
When you get confronted with these inevitable questions, and you engage on a component by component design and price discussion, you can never climb out that hole. Amazon, Best Buy, Target and Wal-Mart will win every time. They buy by the train load and you can’t!
You could use some derivative of: “We know and actually respect what Costco can deliver, but for your vision, your system, we have specified and vetted that specific Samsung model in the proposal, along with all the other elements and components in your system and network. We know that the brand is the same but we are unsure of the chipsets, power supply, latency challenges and control timing disciplines that Samsung used. They stripped down that model to be able to offer Costco customers the same size TV at that eye-catching price”.
Suggesting that you could buy one off the shelf and then put it through your vetting process might work; however, that would incur labour and engineering charges, negating any cost benefit harvested in the first place.
You could also add that the typical Samsung, Sharp and Vizio models offered are relatively short lived on those shelves at this type of outlet, thus rendering the supply as unpredictable or unstable. That is one of the reasons we as an industry can’t really count on them for our offerings.
So, how do you differentiate your company?
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