A more interconnected marketplace is forcing companies around the world into direct competition with each other. Any innovative entrepreneur can escape this trend by creating an “industry bypass.”

Business In a Changing World.

The world is more interconnected today than at any point in history. Consumers have more choice, more power, and more information available to them than ever before.

For your clients and customers, this means a great deal of freedom. But too much freedom can be overwhelming. The vast array of choices has left many people feeling confused and uncertain. For you, it may mean having to compete against a number of others in your industry in a game that’s based on the lowest common denominator: price.
Instead of being forced by industry pressures into this commoditized situation, you can create an “industry bypass,” removing yourself completely from the price war, and providing clarity and confidence to everyone who interacts with your business. The best news is that you’ve probably already got the basic ingredient you need to do this: your own unique way of creating value for your clientele.

An Experience-based Business.

When people have the ability to satisfy all their material needs, what they turn to are intangibles. If you consider your best clients and customers, what they come to you for, and why they keep coming back, isn’t about what you’re selling. Chances are, they could get that from someone else. They’re loyal because of something unique about what they experience with you.

Everything you’ve done up until now as an entrepreneur — all the wisdom and problem-solving expertise you’ve accumulated — allows people to go through a particular process with you that creates a unique experience. This process is yours alone; they can’t get it anywhere else. If you can articulate this process for others, so they can understand the benefit upfront, you’ll have something new you can charge for that competitors can’t touch.

Demonstrating The Unique Value You Create.

Packaging your wisdom into what we call a Unique Process™, allows anyone inside or outside your business to instantly grasp what you do, and their relationship to it. It also provides what people want most: increased direction, confidence, and capability. Capturing and refining your process can take some time, but you, your team members, and your clients and customers will immediately benefit from an increase in clarity and confidence: Your process makes some part of their life work better. How that happens — which products and services can facilitate — is a secondary consideration.

Creating an Industry Bypass.

Most businesses make their money from selling commoditized products and services, and give the experience aspect of their business away – not appreciating that it’s the most valuable thing they offer. This keeps them trapped in a constant battle with their commoditized competition. But when a company is able to package the experience it creates, communicating its entire value creation proposition as a step-by-step process, it is able to create a new level of relationship with its clients and customers that completely differentiates it from competitors.

When you articulate and package your Unique Process, you create an independent source of income that’s not subject to the forces of commoditization in your industry. Your competitors will find it tougher and tougher each year to distinguish themselves and sell product using the old strategies that the industry teaches. You, on the other hand, will have bypassed those methods, and placed your entire business inside a unique, valuable system that’s focused on your clientele, not on what the industry is doing.


© 2007 The Strategic Coach
The Strategic Coach