Impli­ca­tion is more pow­er­ful than spec­i­fi­ca­tion when saying “I’m superior”

February 17th, 2010

Whether you’re offering programs, products, services or experiences/events, if you are surrounded by competition, and challenged to stand out in a noisy and crowded marketplace, you need to let your audience know you and your programs, products, services or experiences/events are special and superior.

This is exactly the subject  Michal Fortin wrote about in today’s post, “Superior Value, Superior Sales.” While his posts tend to be a bit long for my taste, he’s usually got good things to say. Today’s post, is no exception. Here’s an excerpt:

“As sim­ple as it may sound, by com­mu­ni­cat­ing some­thing that’s usu­ally taken for granted by your tar­get mar­ket, you will be cho­sen more often. Rather than claim­ing supe­ri­or­ity, like “we’re #1,” you’re imply­ing it by demon­strat­ing what makes you superior.

“A men­tor once told me, “Impli­ca­tion is more pow­er­ful than spec­i­fi­ca­tion.” In mar­ket­ing, it means that you should imply your supe­ri­or­ity rather than claim it outright.

“If you claim supe­ri­or­ity, your claim appears self-​​serving and what­ever you do say is sus­pect at best. But if you imply supe­ri­or­ity, your claim, although not directly stated, is accepted as more cred­i­ble, gen­uine, and, para­dox­i­cally, concrete.

“Peo­ple will uncon­sciously assume that you are supe­rior. You are com­mu­ni­cat­ing your supe­ri­or­ity, not in some mar­ket­ing piece you wrote or paid for, but in that most elu­sive yet vital of places in all of marketing…

… Your tar­get market’s mind.

“So, rather than out­right stat­ing that you are supe­rior (e.g., that you’re the “best,” that you have a prod­uct of supe­rior or high qual­ity, that you offer greater ser­vice, that you pro­vide bet­ter rates, etc), explain specif­i­cally why you are superior.

“In fact, the most crit­i­cal word in mar­ket­ing con­tains only three let­ters. It’s the word “why.” It is much bet­ter to com­mu­ni­cate why you are orig­i­nal, spe­cial, or unique, or why you are bet­ter, dif­fer­ent, or supe­rior than your com­peti­tors, and not the fact that you are.” (NOTE: I, Bonnie, added the bold.)

Now the challenges:

1. Step back from what you offer {product, program, events, services, etc.) far enough to see it through your ideal prospects’ and clients’ eyes.

What would they say the “why” is?

2. Once you’ve identified the “whys,” how do you language them so what they imply attracts attention, piques interest, and inspires desire and action.

3. How to distribute and deliver your message, where to share it and when so people in your target audience read, listen, and watch your message so they perceive your special value and are sold before they pick up the phone, send an email, click on a link, or walk in the door.

• If you agree these are challenges worthy of your attention,
• If you want the perks of being known as the expert in your field, {to be well seen, well known, and well paid}…
• If you want or need help, choose to bring in a valued, trusted adviser.

Even if you could do it alone, here are a few examples of when you might collaborate or delegate:

• when the task at hand requires creativity
• when it’s something you don’t like to do
• when you’d have to learn something new that’s not a revenue-generating activity, or especially, when you’re only going to do it once or once in a while
• when having someone else do it frees you up to do something only you can do or something you love to do
• when what you do with your now available time brings more revenue, more personal satisfaction, more joy, more possibilities
• when the expert you work with or delegate to costs less per hour than what your time is worth

If you can think of other reasons to get help, I’d love to hear from you…

By the way, Michal post contains a few additional good points so click here to read the beginning and the rest of the article.

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