Last week we posted about strategy. Today I’m going to unpack the differentiation aspect a little. As a small business, you’re probably in this category (because to be successful as the low cost provider, you need massive scale). In practical terms, that means everything you do should be about creating or capturing value. Are your employees chatting or playing on their phone behind the register? Probably not helping. Are you giving away free stuff? Some say giveaways are an effective marketing tool. There is certainly some truth to that, but you have to be careful that those freebies don’t cheapen your brand.
The question you should always be asking yourself: is what I’m doing right now creating value in the mind of my customer?