Differentiate your value proposition—not common industry terms

Differentiate your language to rise above the competition

In an effort to rise above parity among competitors, technology companies will attempt to create sales messaging that is differentiated—and avoid common, too-similar language. In my white paper, “Six Common Technology Marketing Mistakes,” I showcase some of the typical overused (if not fully abused) nomenclature that content writers all too often rely on for their technology-focused messaging.

This includes commonly used language such as:

• Best-in-class
• Leading-edge
• Technology innovations
• Powerful solutions
• Best practices
• Results-oriented
• Thought leadership
• Industry-leading
• Fully integrated
• Highly scalable 

There’s nothing inherently wrong with using some of this language—if it’s the clearest and most concise means to communicate a fully developed set of differentiated messages. But when overused, they end up creating bland undifferentiated messaging statements that reduce impact.

We advocate for the building of truly differentiated messaging that helps technology companies rise above their competitors in a manner that has real impact on their target accounts.

But don't differentiate too far

In their effort to create highly differentiated messaging, some companies can go too far.

For example, an electronic health records (EHR) software company may want to create a more unique description for their software—actively avoiding the terms “electronic health records” or “electronic medical records” common to the industry. They want to come up with unique content that stands out from their competitors.

Let's say the company circumvents the use of “electronic health records” with the more unique and creative  “patient information repository.” This alternative language certainly stands out from their competitors, while helping their solution appear sophisticated and differentiated.

So what’s the problem? Search engine optimization (SEO), for one. Let’s do a simple Google search on these language options.

• Industry common term: “electronic medical records” = about 11,000,000 matches
• Unique, differentiated term: “patient information repository” = about 8,000 matches

This massive difference in search results means that the industry has not yet adopted this alternative language. So unless “patient information repository” is an up-and-coming concept that is quickly gaining momentum, you could have a real uphill battle trying to gain traction for it.

Be careful about altering or replacing the base-level descriptor for your offering—especially if the industry has already adopted and accepted a common term. You risk damaging the ability of potential customers to find you—or otherwise reduce their ability to quickly and accurately understand your primary offering.

Coca-Cola still refers to its main product offering as a “soft drink.” Even as the industry leader, you don’t see Coca-Cola trying to recast their base-level descriptor with a more differentiated, creative descriptor (“liquid candy,” anyone?). With all of the industry might they have, they still use the industry-accepted terminology.

Differentiate your value proposition instead

When defining the core, base-level descriptor for your product or service, it’s important to recognize and embrace the industry-accepted terminology to allow potential customers to find you and quickly understand your basic offering. Your base-level descriptor is the minimal language you need to define your offering to a potential customer.

In the earlier example, we would describe the base-level offering as “electronic health records software.” A simple test is to ask yourself how you would answer a customer who asked, “What does your company do?” In this case, you wouldn’t just say “software”—that’s too broad.

Using the common, industry-accepted language does not mean to abandon your efforts to differentiate your sales messaging. Work even harder to differentiate your customer value proposition. In fact, it’s vital to develop differentiation with your full customer value propositions and elevator pitches.

An effective customer value proposition has these four elements:

1. Your base descriptor [What do you offer?]
2. Your target customer(s) [For whom do you do offer it?]
3. Your primary value benefit(s) [What will your customers gain?]
4. Your qualifier(s) [How do you provide this benefit better than the others?]

Only the first two elements need to leverage industry-accepted terminology. There’s plenty of opportunity to differentiate your language in your discussions of primary value benefits and qualifiers.

The bottom line is: Differentiate your messaging, but don’t confuse your prospects with an attempt at uniqueness in how you describe your offering. Focus your attempts at differentiation through other elements of your customer value proposition. Coca-Cola sells soft drinks—just like its competitors.