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

Jaynie L. Smith (Author), William G. Flanagan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 25, 2006

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. Consultant, public speaker, and competitive advantage expert Jaynie Smith will show 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. 

Editorial Reviews

Review

"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, CEO, 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, SRC Holdings Corp., author of The Great Game of Business

Jaynie Smith’s experience as an advisor to scores of CEO’s 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, 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, MediaOne

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. His last book was Dirty Rotten CEOs (Citadel).

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Crown Business (April 25, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385517092
• ISBN-13: 978-0385517096
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.9 x 7.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #31,435 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jaynie L. Smith is the Founder and CEO of Smart Advantage, Inc., a marketing/management consultancy whose clients range from mid-sized companies to Fortune 500 companies. Her company has taught CEOs in over 400 industries how to uncover and use competitive advantage in their sales and marketing messaging. She consults nationally and internationally with many CEOs and high level executives in helping businesses define their competitive advantages. Her 35,000 plus hours experience consulting CEOs & 15 Top Performer Awards for CEO coaching are visible in the results that her clients get.

Her clients experience double-digit growth within 6-12 months after implementing the Smart Advantage process. Once a company can answer the question, "What is your #1 Competitive Advantage?" they can effectively sell a truly significant value proposition.

She has served as a keynote speaker for numerous associations and is transforming businesses all over the world with her message of finding their competitive advantage. Her presentation is rich in content, focused on providing a new way to understand business, and delivers new tools to compete more effectively. She is personal, humorous, and uses real examples of well-known companies.

To learn more information about Smart Advantage's service please visit www.SmartAdvantage.com or call 954-763-5757.

If you are looking to learn more about Jaynie L. Smith please visit www.JaynieSmith.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Threat Not Seen, June 2, 2006

By 

Craig L. Howe "The Pointed Pundit" (Darien, CT United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Creating Competitive Advantage: Give Customers a Reason to Choose You Over Your Competitors (Hardcover)

Using telling case studies, Jaynie L. Smith reveals in "Creating Competitive Advantage" how to exploit your competitive advantages to keep your firm alive and growing.

In her research, the Florida chair for The Executive Committee, an international organization of more than 11,000 CEOs, claims to have found only two CEOs of more than 1,000 middle market companies that could succinctly and clearing articulate their firm's competitive advantage.

According to the author, the five fatal flaws of most companies:
1. They do not have a competitive advantage but think they do.
2. They have a competitive advantage but don't know what it is--so they opt to lower prices.
3. They know what their competitive advantage is but neglect to tell clients.
4. They mistake "strengths" for competitive advantages.
5. They ignore on competitive advantages when making strategic and operational decisions.

These flaws, the author states, need not be fatal. In ten short, yet thought provoking chapters, she guides the reader through a plan that identifies his or her competitive strengths and prepares an action plan to exploit them.

"Back to basics" is this simple, well-written book's message. Yet, it is a message business leaders will ignore at their firm's peril.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The insight I needed in order to differentiate my business, December 8, 2009

By 

Ashley DuFrene "Ashley" - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Creating Competitive Advantage: Give Customers a Reason to Choose You Over Your Competitors (Hardcover)

As an entrepreneur I am constantly seeking knowledge in order to improve my business, resulting in customer retention and sales. Creating Competitive Advantage by Jaynie L. Smith definitely opened my eyes on how to differentiate my business without relying on price as the only differentiator. Nowadays most businesses (at least from what I see) use the cost of their goods or services as the only selling point they have when marketing their products. But what they don't know is that relying purely on cost is not going to make your business a success in the long run - at least that is what Creating Competitive Advantage sets out to teach you. And you cannot compare your business to the Wal-Marts of the world. They built that empire on cost as the advantage, and probably the only company in history that will last by doing so (or so we think). If you think you can catch up to what Wal-Mart achieved, then you need to wake up from your daydream and smell the roses - it is not going to happen.

So if we will never become the Wal-Marts of the world, then how do we compete with them? Well first, stop focusing on cost as your advantage. In order to compete with your competitors you must come up with competitive advantages that NO OTHER company possesses. Creating Competitive Advantage helps define what these competitive advantages are, and gives you insight on how to develop your own advantages that will set you apart from the rest. This small, to-the-point book definitely gave me the tools I needed to begin brainstorming on how to set my business apart from my competitors - especially those that already have established pretty dang good competitive advantages themselves.

Definitely a must read if you want that extra push to help your business grow, ESPECIALLY during these times. Why do you think a lot of small to medium size businesses have gone out of business? Well my only guess is that they didn't do a good job differentiating themselves on why you should keep coming back to them.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Identifying Your Competitive Advantages, October 12, 2009

By 

John E. Wilfong (Arizona) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Creating Competitive Advantage: Give Customers a Reason to Choose You Over Your Competitors (Hardcover)

This is what I did before buying the book...

I called each of my offices and asked them 'What do we do better than our competitors?'. The results were quite mixed with the main thing being we take care of our customers and know them. The worst response was there are no differences. I wrote down some of my own ideas and found it difficult. We as managers get so wrapped in doing business that we loose sight of our own advantages.

I read this book from cover to cover in less than a week and was able to write down no less than 25 competive advantages! I highly recommend this book and also recommend to do with a notepad beside you as ideas will pop in your mind very unexpectedly.

Enjoy the book.