What Differentiates Your Consulting Practice From the Competition?

Today I want to encourage you not only to read my article but to ‘work’ through it. That’s right; I want you to actively participate. Not for my benefit, but for yours.

If you can come up with a statement that matches both criteria there’s a good indication you’re getting close to finding what really makes your practice stand out from the competition.

I’m going to ask you a question and I want you to take a minute or two right now and answer it. Trust me, it will be worth your time and greatly benefit your consulting practice.

The Question

Okay, here it is:

Question: “What makes your consulting practice special and separates you from other consultants in your marketplace?”

Now before you continue reading think about that question and list out 3-5 of your key differentiators and advantages.

If you can’t, an alarm should be going off for you that this is something you really need to work on.

Okay, have you written down your answers now?

Results

Once you’ve done that I want you to look at the below list:

• Good customer service
• Quality
• Good results
• Knowledge
• Responsiveness
• Speed
• Innovation
• Trust
• Skill
• Education

That list includes 10 of the most common things business owners say makes them different.

None of these is a real differentiator. The fact that so many business owners list the same response clearly indicates these cannot be unique, special or an advantage.

Now, how many of these did you have on your list?

For your consulting practice to have a real and meaningful advantage from your competition your differentiators need to be unique.

Ever heard of USP (Unique Selling Proposition)? The first word is “unique”. If everyone is saying the same thing it’s not unique.

Your Unique Differentiator

One way to ensure your differentiation is real is to think about:

a) What your clients really value.
b) What your competitors either don’t or couldn’t say.

If you can come up with a statement that matches both criteria there’s a good indication you’re getting close to finding what really makes your practice stand out from the competition.