Having effective differentiators can really help your firm grow. In fact, high-growth firms are 3X more likely to have effective differentiator. But, what makes a differentiator effective? Here are three tests to find out.

Video Transcription

Hi, do you have a truly effective differentiator? Now, we all know differentiators are important. They’re what set us apart from other kinds of firms, and they have to be easy to understand. But a lot of us are not sure whether our differentiators are really good or not. So, I wanted to give you a easy way to tell the difference between a good differentiator and one that isn’t. And this is very important because having a right differentiator can really help your firm grow.

High growth firms have…three times more likely to have an effective differentiator. So, what makes that differentiator effective? Well, there are three tests.

Three Tests for an Effective Differentiator

1. Is it True?

First and foremost, is it true? Is it really actually true? Can you deliver on this promise? Saying you have the best customer service, do you really know you do? Or the best people, do you really know you do for sure?

2. Is it Relevant?

Because some things that can be true that you really, really care about clients might not be relevant because all potential clients just assume it’s true. So it has to be relevant at the time they’re making the decision.

3. Is It Provable?

Even if it’s true and even if it’s relevant, can you point to something and prove it? So you get over that thing where everyone says, “Oh, well, everybody says that.” In other words, can you say, yes? But we have the award that shows it, or we have a piece of research that demonstrates it or another way where you can point to something concrete that proves it’s true.

So those are the three tests. Is it true? Is it relevant at the time of making the decision? And is it provable?

If you wanna dive deeper go to hingeuniversity.com/differentiation, and check out the differentiation course.

Author: Lee Frederiksen, Ph.D. Who wears the boots in our office? That would be Lee, our managing partner, who suits up in a pair of cowboy boots every day and drives strategy and research for our clients. With a Ph.D. in behavioral psychology, Lee is a former researcher and tenured professor at Virginia Tech, where he became a national authority on organizational behavior management and marketing. He left academia to start up and run three high-growth companies, including an $80 million runaway success story.