Are You the Best? Go-to-Market Propeller

The third in an occasional column on marketing strategies for emerging technologies, by industry marketing expert Amy T. Wiegand: Go-to-Market Propeller.  This month: Are You the Best?  How to Demonstrate that to Your Customers 

By Amy T. Wiegand

Demonstrating that Your Organization is the Best, Fastest, Safest, Most Cost Efficient & Accurate

Today, in the global race to digitization and automation, we are pioneering new technologies that capitalize on both. Many of us are marketing that we are the best, fastest, safest, most cost-efficient, and most accurate products or services on the market. But who is, really: and how do our prospects differentiate our solutions?

“The Best” Differentiators

Think about the time when you invested in a new technology or a major purchase. Were you sold when you read, “We are the best in our field?” Probably not. Maybe you are leading the pack?

Find the problem you solve for the customer and demonstrate the action that verifies your organization is superior.

Quantify Your Achievements:

• Did your organization achieve a benchmark or surpass an industry standard? Use specific metrics, statistics, or data to highlight your company’s achievements, which add credibility to your claims.
• Are you Time magazine’s #1 tech start-up for 2023? Showcase awards, certifications, or industry recognitions your organization has received. These external validations imply excellence.

Focus on Quality & Customer Success:

• Do you “…strive to provide the highest quality” or is your team “…dedicated to continuous improvement?” Are your Google and Glassdoor reviews superior? Emphasize the quality of your products and services, showcase your people’s stories, and highlight certifications, testing processes, and the quality and security control measures in place. 

Demonstrate Leadership:

• Have you recently exercised testing innovation and a continuous push for improvement? Share thought leadership content, such as whitepapers, blogs, or case studies, to position your organization as an industry leader with deep knowledge and expertise. Showcase how your products or services stay ahead of the curve and adapt to changing needs.
• Do you have a volunteer program that makes a difference in the communities you serve? Showcase that your company is committed to corporate social responsibility, ethical practices, and community involvement. Aligning with positive values can speak volumes about your organization’s character and excellence.

Use Comparative Statements:

• Are you showcasing that “…users are up 50% over this time last month with 99% 5-star reviews?” Instead of claiming to be the best, make comparative statements and comparative visual aids that position your organization favorably.

Communicating your organization’s strengths without explicitly declaring you are “the best” showcases excellence.

“The Fastest” Differentiators

Ask why your organization is the fastest. Is being the fastest better? How? In that answer, find the problem you solve for the customer and showcase the action that verifies your organization’s speed-to-deliver.

Quantify Time Savings:

• Can you highlight that your products or services demonstrate specific time-saving benefits? “Our platform launches precise location information in seconds, or your service is free.” How do your products or services compare to the current methods used? “We can save you days of downtime by completing your job in hours.”

Highlight Quick Turnaround Times:

• Are your custom reports delivered within 24 hours? Does your customer service team resolve issues on the same day? Emphasize your organization’s ability to deliver products or services promptly.

Focus on Real-Time Updates:

• Can your product or service allow customers to “..stay informed with real-time tracking and reporting features?” If real-time tracking solves a customer’s problem, this is a great message for achieving goals faster.

Demonstrate Time-Efficient Processes:

• Are your onboarding or training times kept to a minimum because your products or services are easy to learn and use? Provide examples of processes that save time for customers. “Onboarding is as quick as a 15-minute virtual meet-up with our team.”

Illustrate Efficient Implementation:

• Can your organization quantify the time to complete implementation? “Our solutions are designed for a 2-day, seamless integration into your workflow.”

Emphasize Agility:

• Can your team state, “…our agile approach allows us to respond swiftly to evolving technology updates?” Demonstrate how your organization adapts quickly to changes in your customers’ technology needs.

By communicating your organization’s efficiencies, you can convey your commitment to being the fastest without explicitly stating it.

“The Most Cost-Effective” Differentiators

Is your business a cost-effective solution for the prospects in your pipeline? Is cost their main pain point? It may not be. Find out the cost problem, if there is one, and then showcase the action that verifies your organization’s opportunity to showcase cost-efficiency.

Quantify ROI (Return on Investment):

• Provide case studies that demonstrate a positive return on investment for customers who have chosen your products or services. Use side-by-side visuals to showcase ROI metrics.

Focus on TCO (Total Cost of Ownership):

• Showcase what the products and services are and what their value is over time. Consider discussing not just the upfront costs of your products or services, but also the long-term expenses and value. Demonstrate how your “… solutions are designed to minimize the total cost of ownership, ensuring a cost-effective investment.”

Reference Efficiency + Savings:

• Discuss how your products or services contribute to increased efficiency, indirectly leading to cost savings. “Our platform provides an easy-to-access, single source of truth for use across multiple teams, saving on team travel expenses.”

Highlight Cost Reduction Features:

• Do your solutions offer cost-reduction features? Does your customer practice elimination by using your products or services to remove unnecessary products, processes, benefits, and workflows? Can they optimize operations with your products or services and streamline processes and workflows to reduce bottlenecks and redundancies? Are your products and services cheaper? If yes, then your products and services act as a great substitute. Providing real-world examples and customer success stories is key to supporting these implications. What did they eliminate? Optimize? Substitute?

Emphasize Resource Optimization:

• How are your products or services optimizing resources to indirectly indicate cost-effectiveness? Travel time, labor shortages, time on-site, training?

Showcase Scalability:

• Do you communicate that your solutions are scalable, allowing customers to grow without incurring unnecessary expenses? Demonstrate how to scale with your organization without the customer incurring additional costs or minimal costs.

 Reference Competitive Pricing Strategies:

• How do you mention that your organization employs competitive pricing strategies without explicitly stating cost-effectiveness or that you are competitive? Do you offer affordability over your competition? Investment value? Economic advantages? Accessibility to solutions? Reference and demonstrate all of them.

By communicating the value and long-term benefits of your products or services, your organization can convey cost-effectiveness without explicitly claiming to be the most cost-effective.

“The Most Accurate” Differentiators

Has your organization been validated to provide unmatchable, error-free, precise, and accurate products or services? Define why accuracy is important to your customer and demonstrate how you provide their solution.

Reference High Standards:

• Are industry standards or regulations important to your customers? Communicate a commitment to high standards in your industry and demonstrate how you are doing so. “…because we adhere to the highest industry standards, we are giving a significant time commitment to testing all of our programs with our States’ transportation leaders over the next year.” Validate testing through public relations and a white paper summary.

Highlight Error-Reduction:

• Do your technologies or methodologies minimize errors? “Our state-of-the-art technology reduces the margin of error by 98%.” Providing evidence, such as case studies, will further reinforce these claims.

Illustrate Precision & Quantify Performance Rates:

• Emphasize the sophistication of your algorithms and technologies. Describe your processes in a way that emphasizes precision. “Our engineering-grade data ensures the utmost accuracy…” Quantify specific data or statistics to showcase accuracy rates. “…achieving a 99.9% precision rate consistently with our advanced systems.”

Demonstrate Data Integrity and Quality:

• Emphasize how you achieve data integrity and quality assurance, suggesting a commitment to accurate results. Share stories of your governance framework, audit trails, version control monitoring, migration best practices, data cleansing, and your employee training and collaboration.

Discuss Rigorous Testing Protocols:

• Mention the rigorous testing procedures your platform undergoes. Indicate a dedication to delivering reliable and precise results. “Our platform undergoes dedicated testing plans with 100 active user volunteers for each new release. The test user group must provide a pass rate of 99.9% guaranteed accuracy to launch the newest version of our platform.”

Reference AI & Machine Learning Capabilities:

• Highlight how your organization uses artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities to achieve accuracy through pattern recognition, adaptivity, automation, and scalability.

Highlight Customer Success Stories:

• Showcase positive customer and user experience feedback or success stories that indirectly speak to the accuracy of your offerings. “Our users consistently rate us five stars for delivering precise data analytics solutions.” Showcase the survey or review results. Use testimonials as much as possible.

Demonstrating how your organization conveys precision, reliability, and high standards, you can communicate a commitment to accuracy without explicitly stating it.

The best way to learn your competitive advantages is to understand the market your organization serves. Encourage your revenue generation team to hold frequent customer discovery calls, rigorously qualify prospects before you even open a demo reel and understand current customer service opportunities. These actions provide learning that will showcase why your products and services are superior and where your organization needs to grow. What is the competition saying about being the best? How do they differentiate themselves? Are they faster than your organization? If so, how? Are you competitive in pricing? Is the accuracy of your products and services quantifiable? What are your employees saying about your organization? How can you use these feedback loops to help position your messaging to demonstrate that your organization really is the best?

Missed the last one?  Catch up here:

Amy T. Wiegand is a go-to-market professional, having worked with the best of tech start-ups and notables like Walmart, The Coca-Cola Company, NATO, UPS, local, state, and federal governments, colleges and universities, top ad agencies, and more. She has realized revenue generation growth throughout her career and champions brand management, pipeline strategy, organizational process and implementation, content, product and digital marketing, public and investor relations – and profitability. Amy is also a project architect and master director, having developed award-winning programs in aviation and UAS in public safety, special military, and commercial drone operations. Amy was the first person to facilitate a sUAS training program for The State of Virginia in 2014 and is an enthusiastic leader of STEM initiatives. Connect with Amy on LinkedIn. X:@amytwiegand