Do People Really Know How to Understand Your Offering?
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View through a windshield of a street in Madagascar where a local rides a bike wearing the bright orange campaign t-shirt of the current President of Madagascar.
I was traveling in Madagascar over the holidays and was reminded of the power of the T-shirt. During the 2018 Malagasy elections, the leading candidates gave out brightly colored t-shirts as part of their campaigns. {source} The current president of Madagascar's bright orange shirts are still easily spotted all over the country.
In your business, you probably don't sell t-shirts, but this simple, ubiquitous garment does make for a great analogy to help better understand and communicate your offering.
Which Side Are You Coming From
All items and services fall on a spectrum with two ends that go from (1) a boring known thing to (2) something I've never heard of and I don't understand what it is. When explaining what you do to others, you need to know which end of this spectrum your service falls into so that you can approach it optimally.
End (1) of the spectrum: a man wearing a black crew neck t-shirt featuring a yellow line drawing of a crown.
At the end near (1), a t-shirt looks like a t-shirt. You're at this end of the spectrum if you feel like your job title is a dime a dozen or the thing you offer is everywhere. You don't need to explain heavily what the thing you do is, but you do need to highlight what makes this different than everything else. For example, if I was trying to sell the pictured garment, I'd say "it's a t-shirt that features a cool logo” or “that’s a black crew neck” or any other characteristic that makes it better than a usual t-shirt. If you're in this category then you REALLY need to focus on what makes you stand out from the crowd, your differentiators. More on that down the page.
End (2) of the spectrum: a woman in a fashion show wearing a sculptural garment featuring poofy red elements and rope-styled tan elements.
At the (2) end of the spectrum, the thing you sell looks nothing like a regular t-shirt. You're in this category if you feel like you don't have a job title, or it takes you a minimum of 20 minutes to explain what you do. Your struggle is not what makes you unique, but how to describe what you do in a way that others can understand easily. For example, if I was trying to sell the pictured garment, I'd say "it's kinda like a t-shirt because it covers your body, but the design is so much more... interesting... than a t-shirt." For those of you in this category finding the thing you are similar to (e.g. the thing at position (1) on the spectrum) is key, but it's also important to not lose your differentiators.
Where you are on the spectrum influences how you talk about your differentiators, but you have differentiators none the less. It's important to use your position on the spectrum and your differentiators to communicate to customers why your product or service is the one to buy.
Differentiators
Products and services can set themselves apart in many ways, but they easily fall into three categories of differentiators: price, convenience, or quality. Any business can optimize one of these categories but rarely two and never all three.
Price
Differentiators of price, typically mean the product or service that is the most affordable option, though it can mean being the most expensive. Luxury goods, for example, differentiate themselves by being some of the highest-priced items. I rarely see self-employed people instinctively differentiating themselves as a luxury service, so consider if this might be a good fit for your business.
To be the most affordable option means that you've managed to streamline all the costs and cut corners so perfectly that you're undercutting everyone else who's selling a similar thing. Often times this requires exploiting resources or people in a way that is unsustainable in the long run. For self-employed people, this essentially means you won't get paid enough and your clients are unlikely to value you the way you deserve. This is why I don't recommend affordable pricing as the key differentiator for any self-employed business.
If you're a luxury service, or something other than the most affordable option, consider that discounted "sale" pricing might not be a helpful move for your business.
Convenience
Differentiators of convenience mean the product or service is the easiest to get access to. For example, the t-shirt for your favorite sports team being sold at the local grocery store makes it a convenient purchase while you're already doing your routine shopping. Finding the t-shirt you're looking for online and it showing up at your doorstep the next day is another example of convenience. Service providers who leverage convenience are things like emergency plumbing services or therapy on demand. For self-employed businesses, if you don't plan to be on-call 24/7, then this is probably not the type of differentiator to hinge your business on.
Quality
Self-employed businesses almost always differentiate based on quality and knowing which quality is your differentiator is key. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
Differentiators of quality mean the product or service has some quality that makes it more desirable than others on the market. In a t-shirt, this might mean the shirt has the logo of your favorite band, moisture-wicking technology, or a surprise built-in booster pack! If you found yourself at the (2) end of the spectrum, your differentiators are probably readily apparent. For those of us at the (1) end of the spectrum, it's important to articulate and illustrate the importance of our differentiators.
There are nearly infinite differentiators of quality; it can be any quality your product or service has that makes it desirable to a customer. Here I'm going to go into three noteworthy ones: being the best, being unique, and providing status.
The Best
When we talk about something being a quality product, we're talking about it being the best at something. So it can seem natural to try and claim being the best at what you do. And this has some pitfalls. What if you aren't actually the best? I'm not sure that I'd claim I'm the best business coach there is. I'm not sure what a "business coach competition" would look like, and I have no idea if I'd win or not. Realistically, I wouldn't even enter the competition because this is not my differentiator. My differentiator is in the next paragraph. If you are the best at what you do then this is your differentiator. And if not, that's ok. There are other ways to differentiate yourself.
Uniqueness
If you are the only person on the planet selling t-shirts, then you're not technically the best t-shirt company... you're just the only one. While t-shirts are ubiquitous, you and your service are not. In this case, being the only one is actually a huge selling point.
For anyone who offers a one-on-one customized service, I highly recommend you consider this as a potentially major differentiator. When the chemistry between client and provider is motivating the clients' decision to buy, then uniqueness is the differentiator at play.
Uniqueness cannot be easily quantified, so it's natural to want to not get any more specific. However, the more you are able to articulate the specifics of what makes you unique, the more streamlined your sales process will be. Challenge yourself to get specific on how you are unique.
Status
I would be remiss if I didn't also take some time to examine the differentiator of status. This is especially relevant for those of you who feel like you're in competition with the discount services of Fiver, Upwork, $99 Social, etc. Especially if you provide customized content for the client's brand.
You have many differentiators: your unique talents and strengths, the chemistry between you and your client, and the custom-tailored bespoke nature of what you do. Yet this isn't everything that motivates your clients. There's an invisible quality of status to all that you do.
Remember how status works in the land of t-shirts: If I'm buying a Calvin Klien t-shirt (in my size, fully name-brand) it could be priced at $5 or $40. As the consumer, I might get confused as to why the price is different. Until we look at the larger context: the $5 one comes from the goodwill and is 5 years old; the $40 one is brand new and is the current season's collection. The people who pay for the $40 t-shirt aren't even selecting because of the brand, they're buying purely due to issues of status.
When what you're selling is potentially a status symbol, you need to make a case for WHY what you do is more valuable to the client than a similar offering because it's not always evident to them. Anything related to your client's brand identity is easily going to have status wrapped up into it.
Status can be tricky to articulate. It's unlikely that a client would respond well to something like "my service is better because it provides higher status!" Think of your client's position (even better, think of a specific client) and what need motivates their desire for status. Respond to that and you'll speak to your differentiator of status.
What makes you different?
Take some time and think about what makes you the same and different from your competition. You may have different differentiators for different circumstances. For example, if you sell Teletubbies T-shirts, then when you're at a t-shirt expo your differentiator is that your shirt features Teletubbies. If you're at a Teletubbies convention, then your differentiator is that you're selling t-shirts.
Make a list of your key differentiators so you can refresh your brain any time you're about to go into a business development meeting or about to sit down to work on marketing. Also reference this list anytime you're feeling like the competition is closing in. Your differentiators keep you motivated and help focus your sales and marketing.
