The key way your business will prosper is to identify those things it does really well and
preferably does better than any other, then find ways to communicate those to potential
customers in a way that makes you the obvious choice to do business with.
I don’t particularly care for the word competency, it is not good enough to merely be
competent. You’re competent, so what? Your customer expects competent. What do you
do better than anyone else? Schedule a meeting with your top people and brainstorm, but
be careful not to believe your own PR. There is a definite danger in sessions like this, a
group meeting in which everyone is trying to say things they think the boss wants to hear.
You might end up with results that sound like, “We’re really competent at providing
custom solutions for our customers.” Huh? What does that mean? Sift out those things
you are merely competent at, can you become better at any of these? What will that take?
Once you have one or two things you do better than anyone else, the next question is does
anyone know it? Are you communicating that to potential customers? How?
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This is a really interesting point and one that business owners rarely consider. We’re entering an uncertain phase of economic stability and customers are not going to be reassured by competence. They expect competence, however they really want excellence and also they have their own definition of what that means. To connect and make great relationships with your customers you have to find the ones who want you to excel at what you excel at.