The Win Without Pitching Manifesto was written by Blair Enns. His intended audience is creative firms like ad agencies, graphic design firms and marketing firms. All businesses should have some degree of creativity, but these types of businesses rely on it more than most. The book made many good points in the areas of expertise, target market and prospect / client engagement.
My BIGGEST Takeaway: Innovate and move your service offering off of the commodity line.
It was not necessarily described that way in the book, but that was my biggest takeaway. A commodity is a product or service that is seen as easily interchangeable by customers and clients. In other words, they view that you are selling the same thing that many others are selling with the same benefits. Consider products like fuel, milk and raw materials. Consider services like marketing, SEO, financial advising and even build-to-print machine shops and fabrication shops. The more commoditized your offering is, the more reliance you will have on marketing, discount pricing and touting customer service. The more commoditized, the more the competition.
To move your offerings off of the commodity line, leverage your expertise and creativity to develop branded and unique processes. These processes should be proven to deliver value and desirable results. Some processes may even qualify for patent. Certainly trademarks, service marks, copyrights and trade secrets are within reach. These types of things help show that your offerings are not a commodity.
For build to print machine shops and fabrication shops, leverage your expertise and creativity to develop new products and processes. There is pricing power in a patented and branded product that efficiently solves a problem in the market place.
We may not reach the stratosphere of innovation like Google, Facebook, GE or Halliburton. However, we can innovate within our small business markets and resources. Who knows, you may be the next Google or General Electric.
Contact us today for help in innovating and moving your offering off of the commodity line.