This article is an excerpt from the Shortform book guide to "The Pumpkin Plan" by Mike Michalowicz. Shortform has the world's best summaries and analyses of books you should be reading.
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Are you failing to make sales on a product that other companies are already selling? How can you make your product different from your competitors’s products?
One way to differentiate your company is by developing a unique product or service. Even if you’re selling a common item that other companies have, it needs a different qualification that persuades customers to believe your product is the best.
Keep reading to learn how to make your product unique, according to Mike Michalowicz.
Develop a Completely Unique Product or Service
Knowing how to make your product unique eliminates all your competitors by redirecting customer demand in a new direction that no other companies are pursuing. And since you’re the only one operating in this new niche—an extremely unique position—you’ll attract customer interest and your company will grow more successful.
To do this, identify your industry’s standard operating procedures—the unspoken rules that everyone follows and expects from a company in that industry—and then do the opposite. Specifically, Michalowicz recommends identifying which common strategies and policies irritate people. If your opposite approach resolves those issues, you’ll attract customers both by being extremely unique and by improving their experience.
One example of a company that developed a unique service is Amazon. Amazon made online shopping fast, convenient, and reliable, which radically changed the way people shop. Arguably, its success is partially due to the ways it resolved the annoyances of online shopping: Long shipping times make people more reluctant to shop online, so Amazon delivers packages within a few days—or even on the same day—of an order being placed. People don’t want the hassle of buying their products through several niche stores, so Amazon offers a massive range of products. As a result, Amazon is the largest ecommerce company in the world by revenue and is on track to surpass Walmart as the largest of any company in the world.
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Like what you just read? Read the rest of the world's best book summary and analysis of Mike Michalowicz's "The Pumpkin Plan" at Shortform.
Here's what you'll find in our full The Pumpkin Plan summary:
- Why you’re struggling as an entrepreneur
- What business leaders can learn from prize-winning pumpkin farmers
- The power of focusing on quality rather than quantity
