Business Growth Blog

This may sound crazy, but one of the hardest things to do from a business perspective is figuring out…what you actually do.

Most small businesses don’t spend much time thinking about their core values. It’s a concept that can seem like fluffy B.S., especially when everyone and their brother talk about the same things: excellent customer service, team player, integrity, etc. If not done right, core values can quickly sound like familiar platitudes.

Salespeople always think their product or service is better than the competition, so prospects should naturally choose them, right? Wrong. Looking at it from the prospect's perspective, there usually isn’t much difference between companies. It’s hard to find that one defining factor that stands out above the rest. 

Here are three ideas about identifying differentiators and using them with the right prospect at the right time.

Brands serve as extensions of our self-concept and identity. They encapsulate and convey our core values, lifestyles, and aspirations. When we choose to associate with a brand, we are expressing a part of ourselves to the world.

Determining what should be on your website, let alone how it should look and function, is not a task for the faint of heart. It's one of those projects that takes a lot of hard thinking and seems never to end (which it shouldn't - you should be continually working to drive better results from your site). However, there is one thing you can do to make it easier, save time, and ensure you're keeping up with - or surpassing - industry trends: a competitor analysis.

Here are 5 ways a competitor analysis can help you create a better website:

I recently received an email campaign Marketo put together to target HubSpot users such as myself. My agency is a HubSpot Gold partner and we’ve been using their technology to manage our marketing efforts for many years now. Marketo is one of HubSpot’s biggest competitors.

The purpose of the email was to let me know that Marketo is better than HubSpot (from their perspective anyway) and ask me to schedule a meeting for further discussion.

When I dissect the exchange between me and the Marketo rep and the emotions it invoked from my perspective as the prospect, it reinforced many of the things I’ve been writing about regarding buyer personas, sales messaging, and differentiating from the competition.

Read more to get a real life example of the prospecting process and see firsthand what sales strategies can engage - or disengage - a potential customer.