I just finished reading Creating Competitive Advantage by Jaynie L. Smith. What a great book to cause business leaders to think back to basics. It’s so simple: to be successful you need to be able to convince your market to do business with you instead of with your competitors. The key is to know what your competitive advantage is and then making sure your customers know what it is and build your strategy around it. Northeast Delta Dental’s competitive edge has been called the “Delta Difference” – a commitment to excellence and extraordinary customer service. Because we know that retaining our existing customers is less expensive than marketing to new customers, we work to build our success on their trust. Our customers value our stellar service and are willing to pay more for this most distinguishing attribute of our company. To remain competitive, one must constantly analyze one’s position to determine when new measures of success may emerge, always striving to know what it is that your customers want.
