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Title: Creating Competitive Advantage: Give Customers a Reason to Choose You Over Your Competitors
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Manufacturer: Doubleday Business
List Price: $19.95
Our Price: $9.99
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| Creating Competitive Advantage: Give Customers a Reason to Choose You Over Your Competitors by Doubleday Business Creating Competetive Advatage | If you are trying to increase your business-- do new brochures -- or get your team thinking in the same
direction --read this book-- it's a fast read -- interesting and thought provoking. Each person in your
marketing and sales department should have a copy. I have now started giving copies to customers!! | | Creating Competitive Advantage: Give Customers a Reason to Choose You Over Your Competitors by Doubleday Business Amaturish at best | A leader of a strategic sub group of a non-profit to which I belong requested that all participants read this book. So I bought it. I am surprised how I lasted as long as I did, to page 20. The number of mistakes, imprecise definitions and simply clueless concept manipulations has been staggering from the beginning.
This reminded me my first marketing class in the business school. After listening to a student proudly spewing buzz words, a professor (now at Harvard) said, "I do believe that you are ready for job interviews. Now can you tell me in your own words what exactly have you been trying to say?" Silence followed.
Examples? I'll use just one of many in the first 20 pages. In her example of JTECH on page 10, Ms. Smith states that at HER workshop, "JTACH executives set about determining exactly what the company's strongest competitive advantage was. It's service was great, it's equipment top of the line, it's costs competitive. But that what the competition said, too. JTECH needed a simple, strong, accurate, and convincing statement to differentiate itself from its competitors.
JTECH team brainstormed at the workshop and afterward to determine and articulate JTECH's best competitive advantage - in straightforward, quantifiable terms. They kicked it around among themselves, asked their customers, and finally nailed it down:
Of the fifty largest chains who used paging,
100 percent use JTECH."
Just a few pages later (not further than 20) the author differentiates competitive advantage from a statement.
Wait a minute, you just said that "Of the fifty largest chains who used paging,
100 percent use JTECH," was an advantage (not just any, THE STRONGEST ONE!) or was it just a statement, or can a statement be a competitive advantage, or .... What exactly are you talking about, Ms. Author?
According to this example the biggest mistake that Detroit made is that it has not "nailed it crystal clear that, "100 percent of Americans buy cars from Detroit." Otherwise Toyota have had no chance. If only Detroit C-level executives attended your workshop! That by itself would be the strongest competitive advantage. Alas!
Competitive advantage is NOT something that you or your competition say or do not say. It's a value that you offer to your customers that none of your competition can match and, for which customers are willing to pay. As a result you are receiving profits above (hopefully significantly) your cost of capital on a sustainable basis.
None of the classic strategy text books on competitive advantage or economics of strategy would consider statement, "Of the fifty largest chains who used paging, 100 percent use JTECH," as a competitive advantage. None!
On page 16 the author states, " Competitive advantage goes by other names, as well: Unique selling proposition. Distinguishing features. Competitive edge. Discriminators. Differentiators."
Well, Ms. Author, you just passed a test for being ready for an entrance level marketing/strategy interview. However these are not synonyms.
The fact is that Unique selling proposition can be a competitive advantage or NOT. It can as well be a competitive disadvantage. Or neither if you wish. The decisive criteria would be does this Unique Selling Proposition produce a sustainable returns above costs of capital and above what "not-unique" selling proposition of a competitor produces.
Same goes with all other fancy-schmancy buzzwords that author used in the last example.
I would have given this book zero or negative number of stars, but that was not an option. To be constructive buy an old-good Porter's Competitive Advantage and begin to identify, develop, and preserve yours and learn how to undermine ones of your competitors.
To all the positive reviewers I can only say, "Ignorance is a bliss." Read Porter then re-evaluate this book and be on your way to success.
| | Creating Competitive Advantage: Give Customers a Reason to Choose You Over Your Competitors by Doubleday Business Creating Competive Advantage | | Simple concepts not always thought of by business on a day to day basis.Make all your business battles home games. | | Creating Competitive Advantage: Give Customers a Reason to Choose You Over Your Competitors by Doubleday Business Critical Success Ingredient for businesses | | Most businesses have no awareness of their competitive edge. In today's global information-glut world, how will you separate yourself from the competition? Jaynie Smith provides insights on why it is critical to define your competitive edge and articulate it aggressively to attract customers. I noticed a negative review and I have no clue which book this person read. I am an author, speaker and a business coach and I highly value the ideas contained in the book. | | Creating Competitive Advantage: Give Customers a Reason to Choose You Over Your Competitors by Doubleday Business Best " How To" Book on Competitive Advantage | | So many books are loaded with theory which may stimulate your thinking but leave you confused about what to do next. This book is a real "How TO". I was able to pull my team together and actually do the exercises Smith suggests at the end of each chapter. The content is so to the point and really fun reading on top of it. If you listen to Smith's message it will put money in your pocket! I loved reading this book as much the second time as the first. Lots of meat. | | Creating Competitive Advantage: Give Customers a Reason to Choose You Over Your Competitors by Doubleday Business Product Description | Why should I do business with you… and not your competitor?
Whether you are a retailer, manufacturer, distributor, or service provider – if you cannot answer this question, you are surely losing customers, clients and market share. This eye-opening book reveals how identifying your competitive advantages (and trumpeting them to the marketplace) is the most surefire way to close deals, retain clients, and stay miles ahead of the competition.
The five fatal flaws of most companies:
• They don’t have a competitive advantage but think they do
• They have a competitive advantage but don’t know what it is—so they lower prices instead
• They know what their competitive advantage is but neglect to tell clients about it
• They mistake “strengths” for competitive advantages
• They don’t concentrate on competitive advantages when making strategic and operational decisions
The good news is that you can overcome these costly mistakes – by identifying your competitive advantages and creating new ones. Consultant, public speaker, and competitive advantage expert Jaynie Smith will show you how scores of small and large companies substantially increased their sales by focusing on their competitive advantages. When advising a CEO frustrated by his salespeople’s inability to close deals, Smith discovered that his company stayed on schedule 95 percent of the time – an achievement no one else in his industry could claim. By touting this and other competitive advantages to customers, closing rates increased by 30 percent—and so did company revenues.
Jack Welch has said, “If you don’t have a competitive advantage, don’t compete.” This straight-to-the-point book is filled with insightful stories and specific steps on how to pinpoint your competitive advantages, develop new ones, and get the message out about them. |
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