To build trust with a customer or prospect, demonstrating a sense of vulnerability – seeking first to thoroughly understand rather than to recommend – is a productive method. But most business vulnerability can be destructive.
If you are growing your business solely because you make a unique product, offer an exclusive service or do one thing very well, your business is vulnerable.
Don’t bet your business on just the one component or skill that is now driving your growth. If a competitor replicates your advantage, your growth will plateau and your vulnerability will become the excuse why it happened.
Make it hard for competitors to copy your strategy by developing multiple ways to win. Couple your current advantage with flexible, rapid-response manufacturing, or better logistics and distribution, or exceptionally responsive customer service.
The uncommon value this multi-faceted approach produces for you and your customer strengthens your market position, limits your vulnerability and creates comprehensive differentiation that endures by producing results. Distinctiveness like this generates the highest-quality referrals to sustain growth.
Living off the success of one focused advantage can cause a complacency that ignores threats and blinds you to opportunities. Sustained competitive advantage is built by proactively pursuing new ways to create value and avoid vulnerability.
How many different ways is your business creating value for your customers?
How can you identify additional ways to build your brand and separate from competition?
