| | | Phoenix Rising | |  Differentiation | 5 articles |
| Page 1 of 1 | Previous | Next | PHOENIX RISING JULY 27, 2009 Stop with the 4 Letter Words! Technical standards, definitions, interfaces and acronyms do not belong as the lead in creating your corporate brand, positioning or differentiation. I brought the soapbox out to talk about both 3 and 4 letter words - those pesky acronyms that seem to permeate technical and complex B2B product marketing. I just spent some time reviewing materials from a potential new client. It was a deep dive into the cloud computing world. Which is fine. But it was ALL deep dive. Technobabble does not belong in our key positioning stories. | PHOENIX RISING JULY 16, 2009 Stop Blaming Sales! And FYI - marketing and engineering are supposed to deliver solutions that are differentiated and that customers want to buy. I had to remind a client of that fact as we were discussing their last product launch - a launch that was less successful than they'd hoped. The executive was complaining to me that the revenues just hadn't ramped as expected. The field was discounting, selling point products versus the complete solution, so margins were disappointing as well. Does anyone else smell a rat? surely did. hear this story too often. Take the above example. | | | | | |
| PHOENIX RISING JULY 8, 2009 Revenue's Down, Let's Fire Sales Chances are that the margins, opportunity for expanded revenues and competitive differentiation were much more significant in their newer market targets. I met with a former client to discuss his company's current business. He wanted to pick my brain on how to best approach their opportunity to transform themselves, to reinvent and re-tune. In response to their flat (and somewhat declining) revenue, they've cut back their company resources across the board - but they've specifically reduced headcount in sales. That surprised me. Cutting sales. | PHOENIX RISING JUNE 28, 2009 But the Other Guys Have It! But competitive me-too's are NOT what differentiate you. Remember your Mom's response to that justification? If your folks were like mine, it probably went something along the lines of "So does that mean you'd jump off a cliff just because the other guy did?" " Business is no different - or at least it shouldn't be. Market leadership is not about being just like everyone else. Leadership is about defining (or clarifying) who and what our companies are, what value we bring and why that matters. Market leadership is about being unique. Right. | PHOENIX RISING JULY 1, 2009 The Problem with Plans The game-changing innovation offered: strong differentiation - as in 'only one of its kind' 4-5x the product margins - probably double that a residual leasing revenue model - predictable, high margin revenue. Picture this. big company has one last chance to rise from a serious downturn. But the company has lots going for it. An unbelievably loyal customer and market following, A game changing innovation, A significant demand for exactly that innovation, A bit of money to back it. watched customer after customer 'light up' as we told our story. Sounds great, right? | |
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