Creating Competitive Advantage: Give Customers a Reason to Choose You Over Your Competitors

In this invaluable guide, a renowned international consultant teaches you how to identify and leverage your company’s competitive advantage to grow your business and stand out from the competition. “Ought to be mandatory reading for all entrepreneurs.”—Miami Herald Why should I do business with you . . . and not your competitor? Whether you are a retailer, manufacturer, distributor, or service provider, if you cannot answer this question, you are surely losing customers, clients, and market share. This eye-opening book reveals how identifying your competitive advantages (and trumpeting them to the marketplace) is the most surefire way to close deals, retain clients, and stay miles ahead of the competition. The five fatal flaws of most companies: • They don’t have a competitive advantage but think they do • They have a competitive advantage but don’t know what it is—so they lower prices instead • They know what their competitive advantage is but neglect to tell clients about it • They mistake “strengths” for competitive advantages • They don’t concentrate on competitive advantages when making strategic and operational decisions The good news is that you can overcome these costly mistakes—by identifying your competitive advantages and creating new ones. In Creating Competitive Advantage, consultant, public speaker, and competitive advantage expert Jaynie Smith shows you how scores of small and large companies substantially increased their sales by focusing on their competitive advantages. When advising a CEO frustrated by his salespeople’s inability to close deals, Smith discovered that his company stayed on schedule 95 percent of the time—an achievement no one else in his industry could claim. By touting this and other competitive advantages to customers, closing rates increased by 30 percent—and so did company revenues. Jack Welch has said, “If you don’t have a competitive advantage, don’t compete.” This straight-to-the-point book is filled with insightful stories and specific steps on how to pinpoint your competitive advantages, develop new ones, and get the message out about them.

About the Author :
Jaynie L. Smith is the founder of ICS Marketing, and president of Smart Advantage, Inc., a management consultancy whose clients include hundreds of middle-market businesses. She also serves as the Florida chair for the Executive Committee (TEC), an international network of over 11,000 CEO. She resides in Hollywood, Florida. William G. Flanagan has been a writer and editor at Forbes, the Wall Street Journal, BusinessWeek, Esquire, and New York magazine. He is the author of Dirty Rotten CEOs and Like Mother, Like Son, among other works.

Review :
“Jaynie Smith has written an insightful and engaging book that makes competitive advantage an approachable, personal, and practical concept. The numerous examples are intriguing, and the tone is always ‘here’s what you can do next.’ Small and medium-sized businesses, which are often ignored by authors, will find this book especially relevant.”—Oren Harari, Ph.D., author of The Leadership Secrets of Colin Powell “[Creating Competitive Advantage] ought to be mandatory reading for all entrepreneurs.”—Miami Herald “So many companies think that differentiation is the key to success. It isn’t. The key is knowing how to articulate what’s different or better about your product. Creating Competitive Advantage is a must-have for any CEO’s library.”—David Neeleman, former CEO of JetBlue Airways “Jaynie Smith presents you with the most valuable marketing edge you can ever have—and it won’t cost you one cent. Just be sure that you unleash it before your competitors do. . . . The sooner you read Creating Competitive Advantage, the sooner you’ll profit from it.”—Jay Conrad Levinson, author of Guerrilla Marketing “Any book that tells you how to be different from your competitors is worth reading. It’s what good strategy is all about. Creating Competitive Advantage is just such a book.”—Jack Trout, author of Trout on Strategy “With engaging writing, telling insights, and inescapable logic, Jaynie Smith shows us how Creating Competitive Advantage is key to a successful business.”—Robert B. Cialdini, author of Influence: Science & Practice “Creating Competitive Advantage is a weapon every business person needs in their arsenal to survive in today’s tough world.”—Jack Stack, President & CEO of SRC Holdings Corp. and author of The Great Game of Business “Jaynie Smith’s experience as an advisor to scores of CEOs has been distilled in this comprehensive look at sound competitive strategies. It’s back to the basics, an exercise every business needs to revisit!”—Clark Johnson, former CEO of Pier I Imports “Compelling! The clarity with which Jaynie Smith presents her message is particularly valuable because the concept is, among business leaders, frequently discussed but often understood only superficially. Finding and using your advantage is the key to not only survival but more importantly, attractively profitable survival. Should be required reading for business leaders.”—Chuck Lillis, former CEO of MediaOne