The fundamental purpose of marketing is to differentiate. As I shared my post Monday - the problem with differentiation is that when everyone is trying to do it, it becomes meaningless noise and customer ignore it.
In today's excerpt from my speech at EO's Nerve Conference from last week, I share this insight - what I call The Value Add Trap. Think about the last time a salesperson said to you, "this is our value add." What was your visceral response? The problem with traditional, offering-centric approaches to marketing is that all they end up doing is adding to the complexity. In today's over-complicated world, buyers just shut you out.
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Instead of taking a company centric viewpoint, start looking at everything from the persepctive of your customer. The simpler you can make their life - the more powerful your value proposition will be.