How do successful businesses stand out from their competition? Many business leaders think they know the answer, but some may be operating under dated advice that’s no longer applicable.
Chris Walker is the CEO of Refine Labs and host of the B2B Revenue Vitals podcast, and he’s redefined how businesses play the differentiation game, helping them use those unique elements of what they do to separate themselves and drive leads.
In this episode of One Next Step, Chris joins me to talk about how his system can help our podcast listeners understand how to differentiate their businesses, build their brand and make more sales.
Here are some takeaways:
1. Get information directly from customers.
Before you build a product or service, you need to identify the problem first. And the only way to do that is to talk to your potential customers to find out the issues they are facing.
From there, you can begin digging into those issues and provide the solution through your product or service.
Be objective. Talk to 20 people who use your product, and then talk to 20 people who are similar to each other and don’t use your product. And figure out what the gaps are.
2. Know the difference between creating demand and capturing demand.
Those who create demand are in tune to their customers’ needs. They understand the customer and their problems and can directly respond to them.
Those who capture demand rely more on brand agnostic consumers and usually focus on the “scraps” left over from demand creators via Google, etc to sell their product or service.
If your offering is truly differentiated, you solve a clear pain point, you know who you’re selling to and you know how to get to those people, the preference is that those people know all of those things before they get into a sales conversation with you.
3. Be open to hearing honest feedback about your idea during market research.
If they don’t like what you offer, dig in and find out why. When it comes to your consumers or potential consumers, every answer is a right answer. It’s there for a reason.
It’s your job to understand why they feel the way they do so you can better answer their needs in the future – or simply understand that it’s just not a good fit.