by Jaynie L. Smith, William G. Flanagan
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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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Average Customer Review:
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 Prescription for Improving Your Advertising, 2008-07-17
If you are as tired as I am of being bombarded with advertisements and marketing that all say the same thing, and in the process, really says nothing, then this book is a revelation. Just as bad is dealing with sales reps who all say the same thing. As a consumer (personal and business), I'm constantly looking for ways in which a product/service can be distinguished. I want to buy on value because with few exceptions, I don't trust anything or anyone who is the low cost provider.
Every company executive, marketing, and sales professional should read this book. It cuts right to the point of why so much marketing and sales doesn't work. Better yet, the book makes it clear what does work. Making the link between Competitive Advantages and marketing/sales is brilliant. We aren't trained to think of Competitive Advantages as a sales differentiator. When someone talks about competitive advantage, it is often so esoteric and at a level where it has no real applicability. Creating Competitive Advantage takes the concepts to a level that is applicable to almost every business, and easy to understand.
Probably the best review you can give any book is to track its influence. Ever since I read the book, I am beginning to notice more and more companies using Competitive Advantages in their advertising. It's refreshing, and most importantly it works. Creating Competitive Advantage provides a framework for re-thinking how companies advertise, market, and sell. I got more value out of this than all the rah rah sales drivel that seems to sell by the millions. The book is approachable, written at a level that encourages you to take action, and includes numerous useful examples. On top of that, the book doesn't assume every reader works for Fortune 100 company. Since the majority of executives and business leaders work for small to mid-size firms, this book speaks to that audience in a way most business books don't. Excellent!
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 More Hype Than Substance, 2008-06-19
This book is clearly self promotion for the author's consulting business. That would be OK if there was a lot of substance in the book which there is not. Plus it is not a book about competitive advantage in the widely accepted definition of Michael Porter and such concepts as core competences and strategic capabilities. It is really about developing a value proposition - defining common customer needs, articulating how you solve those needs and developing compelling communication of the value proposition. And it does a fair job at best of covering the topic of value propositions. So save your money. There are much better books available.
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Creating Competetive Advatage, 2007-05-14
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!!
9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
Amaturish at best, 2007-03-08
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 your competitive advantages 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.
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Creating Competive Advantage, 2007-01-24
Simple concepts not always thought of by business on a day to day basis.Make all your business battles home games.
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