As a company implementing the Entrepreneurial Operating System® (EOS®), you will spend time building your Vision/Traction Organizer® (V/TO®). The V/TO “simplifies strategic planning by distilling your vision into simple points that allow you to clearly define who you are as an organization, where you’re going, and how you’ll get there” (Traction). It is a working document that your team will reference over and over again.
During what is typically a 2-day kickoff session, your EOS Implementer™ will help you establish several key items on the V/TO, including your values, focus, and marketing strategy.
These serve as foundational pieces and will help guide you in setting your more granular goals, like your 1-Year Plan and quarterly rocks.
As part of your marketing strategy, you will define what makes your company unique.
Gino Wickman defines a “company unique” in the EOS how-to book, Traction:
“Other common marketing terms for this are ‘differentiators’ and ‘value proposition.’ Plainly put, these are what make you different, what make you stand out, and what you’re competing with. If you line yourself up against 10 of your competitors, you might all share one of these uniques. Some of you may even share two, but no one else should have the three you do. You need to settle on three qualities that will truly make your company unique to the ideal customer.”
So, how do you define what differentiates you from your competition? There are a few ways to approach that question – here are four things we did at M&R to build that definition:
4 Ways M&R Identified What Makes Us Unique
#1: Completed a SWOT analysis on our company
If you’ve ever completed a Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats assessment, you know how rewarding the exercise can be. The SWOT analysis revealed how we’re different from our competitors and also identified areas we were less strong in, which do not appear in our list of unique qualities! Completing a SWOT analysis forced us to be honest with ourselves and made sure we were identifying the ways in which we’re unique, not the ways we wish we’re unique.
#2: Interviewed multiple members of our team
Each member of your team engages with your customer in different ways and will have varying opinions on what you do best. As we sought feedback from employees within different departments and roles, we found a more rounded understanding of where we excel. Prior to interviewing our team, we built a list of questions (and made sure they weren’t leading questions). The questions sought honest feedback – we didn’t want them answering based on what we wanted to hear.
#3: Invited customer feedback
You know yourself and your team well, but sometimes our evaluation can be biased. However, your clients are rarely biased and, if asked, will offer transparent and accurate descriptions of where you excel, and where you don’t. In our case, we just needed to provide them with the space to express that opinion. We used data from Customer Satisfaction Surveys (C-SATs) as we sought to define our unique abilities.
#4: Asked, “When a project goes perfectly, start to finish, what did we do?”
Not every project goes perfectly, but we can all remember the ones that do. Hopefully you’re hitting more doubles and homeruns than you are striking out, so spend some time evaluating the ones that went well. In our evaluation, we asked the team why a successful project went so smoothly. What processes worked well? What was our communication with the client and the team like? Which of our services did the client utilize?
With those answers, we were ready to develop our own list of uniques.
What Makes M&R Unique?
As a team, we have identified 3 ways that M&R is unique to our competition:
- M&R is Full Service & Fully Engaged: as your innovative partner, we offer comprehensive solutions in an ever-changing industry.
- M&R is Exceptionally Creative: we have the capacity, experience, and drive to think outside of the box.
- M&R is Results Driven: after obtaining a deep brand-knowledge, we focus on strategic solutions and best-practices that achieve your goals.
We share these uniques often.
How do We Share Our Uniques
Now that you’ve identified what makes your company unique, it’s time to share it. But one word of caution – don’t just talk about. Be about it. One effective way to be about it is to share it as often as possible and with everyone who interacts with you – from clients to leads to vendors, and especially with your own team.
This creates accountability and clearly defines what you expect to be measured on – it’s an invitation to your clients to hold you accountable and it’s a reminder to your team that these are the expectations for your company’s work.
Here are a few ways we share our 3 uniques:
- With our team at our Quarterly State of the Company
- On our website, here
- On the proposals we present to every lead and client
- In our marketing material, from print material to mailers to digital platforms
We are proud of what makes us unique and are happy to share it frequently, both internally and externally!
How Can We Help?
If you’re preparing to implement the Entrepreneurial Operating System for your business and want some assistance in creating a clear, measurable marketing strategy, we would love to help. M&R Marketing partners with hundreds of growing companies across the United States, many of whom also run on EOS®. Contact us via phone at 478-621-4491 or email to start a conversation.