People Buy Something, Not Nothing
As Bill Bernbach said, “If you stand for something you will always find some people for you and against you. If you stand for nothing you will find nobody for you and nobody against you.” When we are looking at positioning our professional practice, WE MUST STAND FOR SOMETHING. I don’t think we want to be a professional firm that just exists. When you think about “Apple computers” you think about a company that believes in pushing technology and is not interested in status quo (at least, when Steve Jobs was alive).
What do you stand for? Does your position feel authentic? You must stand for something that you truly believe in and something that your customers can believe in as well. Yes, this will cause some to be against you but it also means that you have some for you as well. At Asyma we believe in using technology and management processes as effectively as possible to assist our customers. If you are a customer that doesn’t believe in continuous improvement and using technology as effectively as possible, you are not a good candidate to be our customer. This means that the opposite is also true. Customers that are looking to improve and want to use technology systems that will work effectively are a perfect fit for us.
Don’t stand for nothing. Create a (Stand) position that you believe in and validate it by asking yourself: Does our stand make us clearly appealing to some and help us identify target prospects? Does our stand eliminate competitors in certain areas? Does it allow us to charge premium prices for our services? Does it shorten our sales cycle and help reduce our marketing expenses?
If you can answer yes to these questions, I think you are well on your way to improving your professional positioning and standing for something.