“The Power of Leadership”

Your Marketing efforts should always be reinforcing the idea of product and company differentiation.  Your unique selling positions vs. your competition’s offerings.  Why does your product cost more?  When the general market is down and pressure is high, it is very easy for your product to become commoditized by your sales force because of the common sales myth that in the end, it’s all about price.  Nothing could be further from the truth, if you are selling and delivering value.

You must avoid this commodity trap: if Rolex goes to market as simply a device to tell time, they’re all done!  There would be no reason to choose Rolex over a Casio.  If the Rolex sales force allows themselves to enter the time telling device business, they are doomed.  In fact, selling on price is not selling at all, it is order taking.  And if you are order taking, especially in a down market, your product will always be subject to price slashing and you will likely be exiting the marketplace.

There are times when reducing price can be a sound strategy, but it must be part of a disruptive innovation based on simultaneous reductions in cost of manufacturing or service delivery.

Finally, always be on the lookout for opportunity to innovate by moving existing products to a new set of customers who have a different value expectation.  This can be challenging, however, because these types of innovation may be contrarian to your current customer demands.

“The more you sweat in peace, the less you bleed in battle.” – Rob Waldman

Have a great day of innovation!

Shawn

Russ M. Miller, LLIF – Chairman & CEO
Performance Institute – A Global Leader in Human Capital and Business Development
Sunny Hong Zhang – Managing Partner – China
Shawn M. Miller – Managing Partner – USA

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