If you can solve it, you can own it. The ‘it’ is about that critical, urgent problem in your space that only your organisation has the perspective and approach to solve it. The question is whether you can define what the ‘it’ is going to be.
Our recent article about how to own and commit to a space included questions business owners and executives can consider about defining a space.
Given the external environment, it’s highly tempting to want to be a one-stop hub for clients and customers. It’s important to be clear about this approach. If your business is about providing all areas for your customers, and this is the unique solution in your space, go right ahead.
Unfortunately for many other organisations, being everything to every customer will result in dilution of core specialty and make your solutions a me-too copy of your competitors.
Your organisation’s goal is about committing to a space or a market, build a vision and approach while developing THE ability to meet the needs of that space. A successful application of this strategy will see customers actively seeking you out and pay a premium for your problem solving capabilities.
How can you go about doing so?
Focus, focus and more focus. Work backwards. Identify the unique market position that your organisation will occupy. This is not about declaring market leadership. Being position one in your field is an aspiration. Being the key solution provider for a critical problem in your field is a position.
Find out where the unoccupied space in your field is. There will always be common, critical and urgent problems that are not being addressed, or not being solved well. Pick these problems and figure out if your organisation can solve them well. Own the process to solve the problems and work towards becoming recognised as the preferred solutions provider for this specific problem.
Don’t chase fads. Make the time to do research and identify whether your identified space and problem is just a short-term thing. This is the difference between working and solving for fads or trends. There are many immediate problems brought about by the pandemic. Will the problem continue to be one, after recovery has happened?
Some questions include: Where is the space evolving towards? What are the unmet needs by players in the space currently? Are there any competitive threats? What urgent, critical problems will players face in the next 6 months, and 3 years?
Talk to your clients and prospects. It’s a good habit anyway to stay close to your customers during this time. Use the chats to obtain perspective and information about the space. Ask about the biggest problems they are working to solve, the value of a solution to these problems and whether the same problems will continue over the next 3 – 5 years. Find out if there are problems that are deemed impossible; but if taken care of, will change your customer’s business fundamentally. Make sure you find out what the value of such a solution will be to them.
Connect the dots and identify a problem that only your organisation can uniquely solve, and that is worth solving for. Pay attention to the problems, patterns and whether your customers are open to new or out-of-the-norm tools (including technologies) and if their industry or space will be impacted by emerging trends. If you come across the same problem repeatedly happening for many customers, and no one seems to be handling it adequately, you just might have your high-value problem and solution to work on.
We are Brand Utility is a business consultancy. We work with brands in the corporate, retail, travel and technology spaces.
We offer strategy and tactics to support growth outcomes - revenue, scale, regional expansion and market entry – for our clients.
Areas of support include:
· Strategic communications: Approach to market, brand concept and map, positioning, messaging, story and narrative, thought leadership
· Marketing: Campaign/programme planning, story-based marketing execution, digital marketing, community amplification, content planning and production, go-to-market execution
· Lead generation: Digital advertising, social media advertising, social commerce, e-commerce
· Integration of marketing with business operations: We plan and execute as a seconded marketing and/or PR lead for your brand
Discover more about our services at our website or book an exploratory consultation through this link.
Photo by Scott Webb on Unsplash
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