In any economy – whether up or down – consultants need to differentiate themselves from their competition. And in these challenging times it’s business-savy to sharpen your differentiators.

I find Jay Levinson and Michael McLaughlin’s discussion of differentiators in their book Guerrilla Marketing for Consultants thought-provoking.  I’ve made my own list below — leveraging some of Levinson and McLaughlin’s list (marked “L&M”), adding my own, and categorizing the differentiators.

Your Outcomes

• Results — what quantifiable results have your services delivered to a client? More customers? Significant savings? Etc.

• Testimonials (L&M) — Levinson and McLaughlin recommend getting testimonials from a respected university, think tank, or other institution. I would add getting endorsements from past clients.

Your Services

• Expertise (L&M call this differentiator “category authority”) — what is your specialty? How relevant is it to the client’s needs?Levinson and McLaughlin define a separate differentiator, “Giving Something Away.” This means that you can showcase your expertise when you are in the early stage of a relationship with a new client. For example, giving the client “a complementary seminar, a telephone briefing, or a research report that could benefit a client.” However, you should never discount your services

• Track Record — Is there something in your background and experience that differentiates you? Its breadth? Its depth? Its focus on an industry? Etc.

• Thought Leadership – Are you recognized leader in your field? This can be evidenced in a presentation or a seminar you gave at a conference in your field, or a course you’re teaching at a local university or college, or a book or article that you’ve authored.

• Methods and Approaches — Levinson and McLaughlin put this differentiator on a list of differentiators that do not work because clients expect a consultant to have the right toolkit.However, If you have a unique methodology or approach that produces outstanding results, I would include it as a differentiator. If this methodology or approach has been reused effectively, I think a client would be impressed that the delivery of your service is tested and proven – and also predictable.

Your Personality Traits

• Integrity (L&M call this “honesty”) — they say that clients are turned off by “overblown claims about results.” I would extend this by saying that integrity needs to be reflected in all your marketing and delivery efforts.

What other types of differentiators do you think are significant?

How do you differentiate yourself from your competitors?

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I just finished reading an article on Raintoday.com (yes, their weekly newsletter just came out, featuring five of the year’s best articles on better serving your clients) that focused on “the power of taking your clients interests to heart.”

I found this article interesting on a number of levels, but I’ll limit my discussion to two:

Motives Matter a.k.a. Doing What’s Right

First, the whole concept is a no-brainer to me. It’s how I operate. When I was employee, I made decisions based on what was best for the company, not necessarily what was best for me. Sometimes this didn’t result in the best situations for me, but in hindsight I’d make the same decision again — because it was the right thing to do. It’s what I owed my employers, and it’s what I owe my clients.

The author (Charles Green) of the article wrote that this isn’t a matter of ethics, but rather a simple fact of trust. However, I’d argue it is a matter of ethics, or at least a matter of doing what’s right. This is so hardwired into my system that I get very annoyed when people don’t do what’s “right.” And isn’t doing what’s right a matter of ethics? For me, it goes back to the golden rule, “Do unto others….” I simply treat my clients the way I would like to be treated. I treat their business as if it were my own. It’s what’s right.

Now that said, does that mean I never make mistakes? That I never get irritated? Heck no. Anyone who knows me would tell you that. But my governing principal is doing what’s right by my clients — and that includes telling them when it doesn’t make sense to have me do something for them. And since 99 percent of my business is word of mouth, it also is a good business practice — I’d argue the best best practice you can follow. This echoes Charles Green statement that “being trusted is a very low-risk, high-return strategy.” But doing it just to boost your profits is false.

Relationships and Fake Trust a.k.a We Cannot NOT Communicate

In Charles Green’s article, he writes that “When client focus becomes a tool for seller profit improvement, clients notice and become cynical. Lately, the language of client focus is adopting the language of relationships, fostering yet another layer of cynicism…. If we can’t trust the meaning of the words a company says, then we can’t trust the company saying them.”

I don’t disagree. To me, this is a no brainer. But obviously it isn’t so simple, because many companies do seem to take a seller-profit-improvement approach to client focus. The reason I found this component interesting is probably due to my communication background, studying how humans communicate and why some rhetoric works and some doesn’t.

We cannot NOT communicate is why fake trust or seller-profit-improvement approaches don’t work. It’s a phrase I fell in love with in my first interpersonal communication class; it’s also my company tagline. It says a lot, really. We’re always communicating, even when we’re not saying anything. What we don’t say can often be more telling then what we do say — that’s why fake trust doesn’t work.

Words alone definitely don’t carry the message. All the nonverbal “stuff” says a lot more. There are a lot of studies (sorry, none quoted here, all my books are packed away) that show that if words say one thing and tone or body language say another, the audience will believe the latter over what’s said. So it stands to say that just speaking client-focused language isn’t enough. Most people are astute enough to see past what you’re saying to how you’re acting. If they don’t match, they don’t trust you. And if they don’t trust you, they won’t buy what you’re selling.

Anyway, it’s a good article to read, great food for thought. I’d love to hear what all of you think.

Read, “Motives Matter: The Power of Taking Your Client’s Interests to Heart“

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Andrew Sobel has a great article on Raintoday.com that discusses four ways to deliver value to your clients: core value, surprise value, personal value, and perception of value. For many, it may be no more than a refresher, but it never hurts to keep reminding ourselves of how we can improve customer satisfaction. It’s a simple way to support continued success in running our consulting businesses.

Read “Four Ways to Deliver Value to your Clients”

Happy Holidays Everyone!

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