Differentiating Your Consulting Business

Learn the importance of communicating what sets your consulting firm apart from your competition. 

When you run a consulting firm, you have to answer one very important question. What makes you special? If you can’t articulate what sets you apart from all the other consulting firms out there, you’ll be hard pressed to win business away from them. You’re going to have trouble winning the bid when other firms are in the mix. Have a clear statement about why you’re differentiated. It’s that differentiation that will enable you to compete on quality instead of being in a race to the bottom on price.

I run a leadership training firm. The thing I say differentiates us is all of my instructors are practitioners and everything we teach is immediately applicable. The way I position that with my clients is, “Since my instructors are practitioners, we can deliver better training than people who are academicians or career facilitators.” I often ask my clients, “Hey, you know what, why don’t you go ask for the resume of the person who’s going to be on the podium? Because by the way, here’s the resume of my instructor that I’m gonna put out there.” We win that business most of the time.

We also have an ability to differentiate on blended learning. The video-based training courses that I deliver along with my other instructors are something that sets us apart. Not a lot of other training firms have the capability we do. That enables us to differentiate our offering versus our competitors.

Think about things you can differentiate on. Some things to consider are your consultants’ special expertise in an industry or specific functional area. Maybe they know everything in the world about mergers and acquisitions. Maybe they’re an expert in the metals and mining industry. You can differentiate based on licenses and certifications that you hold. Those take time and money to earn. When your people have them, that can be a differentiator. You can also differentiate on access to intellectual property or proprietary methods and models that you’ve built. You spent a lot of time creating that intellectual capital. Let it set you apart from your competitors.

Just take a moment and ask, what makes you different? Why should the client choose you over someone else?

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