How Are You Different?

Have you ever given any thought to how your agency appears to the prospective customer?  What I mean by this is not what the office looks like but what the prospect sees as the value proposition you offer.  You do have a value proposition, don’t you?

Whether you know it or not—whether it’s intentional or simply something that just exists—your agency is successful, or not, because of the value you create for the customer.  It may be “lower cost,” “great service,” “friendly people,” “caring claims” or some other thing that you either express to prospects, or they perceive themselves, which causes them to do business with you.  This is your value proposition.  Everyone has, whether they realize it or not, a value proposition.

So, if you do have one, what is it?

Is it one that you have purposefully created, nurtured and marketed?  Or is it simply unexpressed but real?  Is your value proposition really what you think it is (in the mind of your prospect)?  Is it unique?  

Recently, my family went on a two-week tour of colleges so my sons could get an idea about where they want to attend.  It was interesting at first.  Then it was boring.  It was boring because, basically, all colleges are identical.  At least they are identical in what they say about themselves.  About how they pitch themselves to prospective buyers.  

Almost every college we visited had the identical value proposition.   Consequently, they all had the same relative value.   

When a business has the same relative value of all the other businesses it competes with it has been commoditized.  When your business has been commoditized in the mind of prospective buyers, what do you compete with?

Price.

Is this what you want to compete on?  Just price?  Is that really the value proposition you want to offer?  To prosper or go broke on?  

I don’t think it is.  And it’s probably not how you think of your business any more than it is how colleges view themselves.  But if it’s real, and it may be, it’s a terrible value proposition.

Next time we’ll consider what to do about it.