USP
Do we need USPs? Do we need to offer something different to anyone else? I don't think so. Being unique is very very hard. As soon as you develop something unique, everyone copies you. Regular readers will know how much I look to nature for the answers. In nature, some animals evolve unique skills, and others then copy them. Flowers mimic bees in order to get their pollen distributed. Hoverflys mimic wasps to protect themselves.
I can tell you that, in reality, the training or coaching or consulting work we do isn't radically different. It's just better, because the people in our team are better, and they are more personally involved in what they're doing. They are doing it because they love what they do.
I was with a client today (an insurance company) who has a team of around 15 trainers delivering training to almost a thousand staff, continually. They were saying that it's hard for the trainers to acquire new ideas and skills, and since they haven't lost a single person in the past 2 years, they don't get the cross fertilisation of ideas that staff turnover brings.
I think this is an area where excellerate really is unique. Since our clients are part of our team, they could second trainers into excellerate to go off and work with other clients, exposiong them to new situations, new ideas and new people. Similarly, other clients could second people, through excellerate, into their team to bring in new ideas.
I don't know of any other professional services companies that are so confident that they are happy to let clients into their secret inner world.
Maybe that's what is unique?
Of course, everyone will copy our idea sooner or later, and if you're a client you will always know the truth: a hoverfly can't really sting you. There's only one original and best.
I can tell you that, in reality, the training or coaching or consulting work we do isn't radically different. It's just better, because the people in our team are better, and they are more personally involved in what they're doing. They are doing it because they love what they do.
I was with a client today (an insurance company) who has a team of around 15 trainers delivering training to almost a thousand staff, continually. They were saying that it's hard for the trainers to acquire new ideas and skills, and since they haven't lost a single person in the past 2 years, they don't get the cross fertilisation of ideas that staff turnover brings.
I think this is an area where excellerate really is unique. Since our clients are part of our team, they could second trainers into excellerate to go off and work with other clients, exposiong them to new situations, new ideas and new people. Similarly, other clients could second people, through excellerate, into their team to bring in new ideas.
I don't know of any other professional services companies that are so confident that they are happy to let clients into their secret inner world.
Maybe that's what is unique?
Of course, everyone will copy our idea sooner or later, and if you're a client you will always know the truth: a hoverfly can't really sting you. There's only one original and best.
1 Comments:
I realise now that I'm not against uniqueness, what I am against is manufacturing uniqueness for its own sake, as if trademarking an acronym for an intellectual product will make us unique. For me, unique is the flipside of memorable. We remember things that are unique, unique things are easier to remember or at least to distinguish from other things.
So what makes excellerate unique now? I still think it is the combination of community and independence that we have within the team. That fierce independence creates true objectivity, because we have no vested interest in anything but the best solution for the client. We don't have to make the problem fit our solution because our solution is constantly evolving as we challenge ourselves to achieve a level of craftsmanship that we can be proud of.
How can any company that sells a product be objective? There are companies out there that have turned ideas into products and given them acronym names, and they sell those products as a panacea, a cure-all for all your business and personal troubles. Honestly, does anyone really believe that? Or does it appeal to the people who just want to make an easy purchase, knowing they'll be buying something else next year? Do they buy their Go Potty coaching program or whatever it is so that they don't have to think about what they really want? Or do they genuinely fall for the sales pitch?
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