Answer this question: What business are you in?
If you answered with the type of product you sell (i.e., “I’m in construction”), you’re wrong. Products are commodities, and companies that focus only on the products are a dime a dozen. Companies that focus on the service they deliver have the opportunity to create uncontested market space.
Every single industry in the world has commodity players and service players, be it insurance, restaurants, or coal mining.
The commodity players are easy to identify—they’re the ones who aren’t growing, who have low levels of equity in their community, and who have unhappy or “satisfied” customers and employees. Commodity businesses must compete on price, matching their competitor’s inventory and besting their prices. This is a dangerous game.
The service players are also easy to identify. While the commodity players compete on price, the service players compete on value. The service players understand that it is simple to copy a commodity—you just produce the same thing as the next guy. The service players are the ones that break out of the commodity business to offer a superior experience that only they can deliver. These are the companies that seem to have a unique vision, happy employees, and enjoy annual growth. They also tend to be irreplaceable companies that enjoy loyal fans as opposed to mere customers.
If you’re not standing out as a service player, you are probably an interchangeable commodity, which means you’re just one lowball bid or one additional market competitor away from financial trouble.
So I’ll ask again: What business are you in? More importantly, what incredible value can only your company add to the products you sell?
photo credit: Dave or Atox
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