Are your competitors driving your actions and decisions?

If so, then you are surviving, not prospering, and your market dominating position (also called a “unique selling proposition”) needs work. Imagine that you have three primary competitors. You provide the same services, advertise the same, and establish pricing based on your competitor’s pricing. Periodically you attempt to advantage yourself by discounting the price of some items or services. The result is that you are racing your competition to the bottom of profitability.  You have reduced your revenue while maintaining your cost of goods and overhead costs. To exacerbate the problem, market research suggests that if your discount is not at least 40%, it has little to no market effect.

How does a customer determine which provider they should use? In your customer’s mind, it does not matter because you are all the same. As a result, if you share potential customers with your three competitors, you will be lucky to lose only 75% of the customers who buy your products and services.

Now ask yourself if this is how you want to manage your business. If the answer is “no”, then you must change the narrative. The first step is to focus on your customer and not on what your competitors are doing. Rather than seeking the status quo and competing on price, compete on value with a Market Dominating Position.

What an MDP Is and Does

A Market Dominating Position (MDP) can produce significant growth for a business. In some environments, development of a successful MDP can result in a 40% to 60% business increase. Even if your competition has an MDP (usually they don’t), they often do not articulate it clearly and consistently.

The key to establishing an MDP starts with understanding the conversation in your prospects head. This conversation revolves around two major points:

There is a problem they have and do not want and there is a solution they want but do not have.

Understanding this internal conversation and the hot buttons that drive your prospect’s decision-making process is paramount. Solving customer problems is the foundational element of marketing. When you solve problems, pricing and competition become less relevant.

Where do you start in the development of an MDP? The process has two distinguishable parts. Step one is determining the key problems/issues that your service/products address. Step two is creating a compelling way to deliver the message and distinguish your process from your competitors.

Examples of MDPs

To provide clarity, let us start with some examples. Have you ever met a real estate agent? When you ask them what they do, they might say, “I’m a real estate agent”. When you hear that, is it impressive or compelling?  It makes you think, “So what?” What if they said,

“I help families buy homes larger than they thought they could afford.”

Or “I sell homes within 60 days, or I sell them for free.”

If you were looking to buy or sell a home, would that be more compelling than someone who states what everyone else says? Establishing unique value is what a Market Dominating Position is supposed to do.

Here are some more examples of market-dominating positions:

• A dentist offers dental services at copay prices to non-insured patients.  
• A daycare guarantees your child will be reading at a 2nd-grade level before they enter kindergarten.
• A personal trainer guarantees you will lose a certain amount of weight before your wedding day.
• An online course guarantees you will have a job within 30 days of graduation.
• A business coaching firm offers a 200% RIO written guarantee.

Businesses that fail to address consumer needs are asking the customer to buy from them because they need to make a sale, even though they have nothing special to offer. By fulfilling the client’s needs, you demonstrate why a customer would be foolish not to select your business.

Specialization

When a business or profession leverages specialization, the narrowed focus can provide a significant MDP for referral and financially advantaged pricing. The grocer specializes in organic foods. The doctor specializes in thoracic surgery. The business broker specializes in the sale of dental practices. Too often business owners think that providing every possible product or service is valuable. In reality, the specialist who provides a focused benefit is perceived as providing true value. For some businesses, specialization is more difficult to recognize and may require a unique approach.

Example of Specialization

Imagine you have fast food hamburger restaurant. What makes you unique? In Seattle, there’s a hamburger restaurant with a limited menu, no indoor seating, and pricing on the mid to high side. Yet, they sell more hamburgers than any national chain in the Seattle marketplace. (McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Burger King). Currently, they have seven locations. When they open a new facility, the opening day wait to buy a burger is an average of 2 to 3 hours. What is their MDP? It is not the hamburger, the location, or the price. They have focused on their support and contribution to the community.

As an employee at this restaurant, your starting salary is $20 an hour. After a short probation period, you receive health insurance. After a year of employment, you are eligible to participate in a college and trade school tuition program. While the employment advantages are public, they do not brag about themselves; others do that. Instead, they actively contribute to community causes.

They have developed an MDP by educating the public that supporting education and a decent salary for traditionally low-income jobs is a benefit to the community. In turn, the public has taken pride in ownership of the value and community benefit.

Conclusion

Creating an MDP is possible for any business, but it may require creative outside-the-box thinking.

Business owners lacking a Market Dominating Position pass up one of the most valuable growth tools available. However, in the search for a meaningful MDP, be careful not to fall into the ‘easy road’ syndrome including stale concepts such as ‘Best Pricing”, “Best Service”, or “We have been in business longer”. These don’t differentiate you; often your competition is saying the same thing.

What if you could articulate your unique benefit in a single sentence? And then use it in your marketing, website, social media, and when you and your staff speak with prospects? The outcomes can be substantial.

Consider starting the development of an MDP by asking your employees, “What is our Market Dominating Position?”  You will probably discover a lack of consistency.  While you might not immediately find an MDP, your employee observations might help clarify your business’s advantages.

Take the first big step in growing your business. Develop an awe-inspiring Market Dominating Position.

Jack Gruber, Co-Founder, Summit Business Growth