Is Competence An Effective Differentiator?
In our business we’re always looking for ways to favorably differentiate our company from others providing similar services (competitors in other words). We suspect many of our business and professional clients have similar interests.
So can competence be an effective differentiator? We think so and here are a few ways we go about pursuing it in our business.
- Being Selective: We’re selective about the business we take on. We sometimes say no. We only accept work we have a high confidence of completing succesfully.
- Seek Out Challenges: We perform plenty of more routine work, but we also welcome projects that have special challenges (e.g., specialized terminology, complex formatting, uncommon source file types, et. al.). While many companies can perform more straightforward projects, those with some type of complexity benefit from special skills and attention, narrowing the field of companies capable of providing those services.
- Develop Niche Expertise: With an eye to the future we develop niche capabilities that are not commonly offered by others. One way to organize this effort is to track the inquiries we receive for services that are not commonly available, then decide which new skills are attractive to develop, either internally or through partnerships.
So can competence be an effective way to differentiate your organization? It might be worth some consideration.
