Positioning for Professionals E-Book

Tim Williams

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Serie: Wiley Professional Advisory Services
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 259

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2010

Beschreibung

It’s not the best companies that prevail in the marketplace, but rather the best brands. The goal of business strategy is not just to be better, but different. Learn how to build a differentiating value proposition by clearly and carefully defining your brand boundaries: Calling, Competencies, Customers, and Culture.

Positioning for Professionalsshows how a well-defined value proposition can help professional service firms create their own success instead of copying the success of others, including such concepts as:

• How and why professional service brands become homogenized
• Why standing for everything is the same as standing for nothing
• Why there’s no such thing as full service
• Deep and narrow as a strategic imperative
• Why it’s better to be a profit leader than a market leader
• Differentiation and price premiums
• How to map your brand on the matrix of relevance and differentiation
• How to define a value proposition that will make your firm intensely appealing to the customers who want you for what you do best

Based on the proven premise that the most profitable business strategy is not to aim at the center of the market, but rather at the edges, Positioning for Professionals is written for leaders, managers, and other senior executives of service companies in with a particular emphasis on professional service firms.

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright Page

Dedication

Introduction

NO SUCH THING AS A COMMODITY

THE URGE TO COPY

THE BEST AND ALL THE REST

ALIGNMENT IS EVERYTHING

POSITIONING IS NOT COMMON SENSE

A BRAND DEVELOPMENT GUIDE FOR PROFESSIONAL FIRMS

YOUR FIRM’S VALUE PROPOSITION

THE TRUTH OF YOUR BRAND

NOT SERVICE, BUT KNOWLEDGE

CHAPTER 1 - Size Is Not a Strategy

MAINTAINING PRICING INTEGRITY

BETTER TO BE A PROFIT LEADER THAN A MARKET LEADER

WHY BIGNESS DOESN’T LEAD TO GREATNESS

HIRED TO BE EFFECTIVE, NOT EFFICIENT

CHAPTER 2 - How and Why Brands Become Homogenized

THE URGE TO COPY

THE FOLLY OF ALL-IN-ONE

LINE EXTENSION IS NOT BRANDING

THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS FULL SERVICE

THE NATURAL FEAR OF FOCUS

CHAPTER 3 - The Mature Company’s Identity Crisis

DIFFERENTIATION AND PRICE PREMIUMS

COLUMBUS, NOT NAPOLEON

THE DIFFUSION OF IDENTITY

LANDING IN NO-MAN’S LAND

STRATEGY AT THE EDGES

NOT BEST PRACTICES, BUT NEXT PRACTICES

CHAPTER 4 - Expanding Your Business By Narrowing Your Focus

THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS A GENERAL MARKET

VERTICAL SUCCESS VERSUS HORIZONTAL SUCCESS

THE STRATEGIC VALUE OF GOING DEEP

CHAPTER 5 - Positioning as the Centerpiece of Business Strategy

WHAT ARE YOU REALLY SELLING?

BECOMING HARD TO IMITATE

TWO CRITICAL DIMENSIONS OF AN EFFECTIVE VALUE PROPOSITION

A CATEGORY OF ONE

A BRAND IS THE CUSTOMER’S IDEA OF THE PRODUCT

NATURAL OUTCOMES OF A POWERFUL VALUE PROPOSITION

CHAPTER 6 - Building Brand Boundaries

BRAND BOUNDARY 1: CALLING

BRAND BOUNDARY 2: CUSTOMERS

BRAND BOUNDARY 3: COMPETENCIES

BRAND BOUNDARY 4: CULTURE

THE CONFLUENCE OF CALLING, CUSTOMERS, COMPETENCIES, AND CULTURE

CHAPTER 7 - Validating Your Value Proposition

BE ROOTED IN THE FUTURE, NOT THE PAST

THE VALUE PROPOSITION TEAM

ASKING THE RIGHT QUESTIONS

CHAPTER 8 - Without Execution, There Is No Strategy

SERVICES

STAFFING

SELF-PROMOTION

SYSTEMS

STAGING

EXECUTING A POSITIONING STRATEGY WITH ALIGNMENT TEAMS

REBUILDING YOUR SHIP WHILE AT SEA

CHAPTER 9 - Getting Paid for Creating Value

THE PERILS OF COST-BASED COMPENSATION

CHANGING THE LANGUAGE

PRICING AS A CORE COMPETENCY

WHY A VALUE-BASED APPROACH IS IN THE CLIENT’S BEST INTEREST

THE ALIGNMENT OF INCENTIVES

CREATING A VIRTUOUS CIRCLE

CHAPTER 10 - A New and Better Way to Price Professional Services

FORMS OF VALUE-BASED PRICING

THE RIGHT CLIENTS FOR OUTCOME-BASED AGREEMENTS

THE TRUE MEANING OF PARTNERSHIP

UNCOVERING MISSED OPPORTUNITIES TO MAKE PRICING A CORE COMPETENCY

KEY QUESTIONS IN SETTING A VALUE-BASED PRICE

IF COMPLEX GLOBAL COMPANIES CAN DO IT, SO CAN YOU

BETTER TIME TRACKING IS NOT THE ANSWER

THINKING OF COMPENSATION PLANS AS A STOCK PORTFOLIO

SETTING THE STAGE FOR A VALUE-BASED APPROACH TO COMPENSATION

A DECLARATION OF VALUE

APPENDIX A - The Before-and-After Survey

APPENDIX B - More Ways to More Ways to Differentiate Your Brand

APPENDIX C - Indicators of the Firm’s Success

Notes

About the Author

Index

Copyright © 2010 by Tim J.Williams. All rights reserved.

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.

Published simultaneously in Canada.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:

Williams, Tim, 1954—

Positioning for professionals : how professional knowledge firms can differentiate their way to success / Tim Williams. p. cm.

Includes index.

ISBN 978-0-470-58715-7 (hardback); 978-0-470-87735-7 (ebk); 978-0-470-87751-7 (ebk); 978-0-470-87752-4 (ebk)

1. Branding (Marketing) 2. Success in business. I. Title. HF5415.1255.W.8’27—dc22

2010021337

To my wife and lifetime companion, Christine

Introduction

Quick, which airline do you associate with the following? “We invite you to sit back, relax, and enjoy your flight with us today. If there’s anything we can do to make your flight more enjoyable, please just let us know.”

Your answer is probably “every airline.” That’s because pretty much every airline uses the same language on every flight. There is, of course, the government-mandated safety language that every airline must include in its on-board announcements; but beyond that there is a missed opportunity for airlines to say something different. There’s also an opportunity for airlines to do something different, but most don’t. The result is that you don’t know whether you’re flying Delta, United, or American. And chances are you don’t care.

The airlines are just doing what most other companies do: copying their competitors. In a business context, imitation is not “the most sincere form of flattery”; it’s just lazy. When you really think about it, copying someone else’s business model demonstrates an incredible lack creativity and imagination. Yet most business and brands are just copies of someone else’s.

Most managers invest their time and energy in trying to make their brands better, when in fact they should be working to make their brands different. Better isn’t necessarily always better; different is better. Behind the scenes, American Airlines may be working hard to recruit the best people, deliver the most efficient service, and build the best maintenance record. But most of that means very little to customers unless their experience with American is actually different than with other airlines.