Your business is different than the competition, right? Well, let's find out. Welcome to The Marketing Accelerator Podcast, featuring three insights in about three minutes. I'm Drew Dinkelacker, and today I'm speaking with Jon Morris, CEO and founder of FiscalAdvocate.com where they help professional service companies make more money and save time doing it. Jon, there's like 1.3 million professional service companies in the USA and most claim to be different, but few actually are. How can we tell if what we think differentiates us actually does?

Jon Morris: I created the two-question differentiation test, and I don't care what you do, if you can answer both questions, you have a very clear differentiator. Give a quick example, I'll give the first question. Real simple, what makes you unique? What I found is that when you ask those 1.3 million professional service companies that question, the answer is generally really similar. We care more, we have better customer service, we're data driven. There's only, like, you get to talk to more senior people. And generally, there's only five answers that you get when you ask that 1.3 million different professional service companies.

Drew: Yes, I think I've heard all of those descriptions of differentiation over the years. None of them are very strong. What's question number two on this test?

Jon: So, the second question is…That's awesome. I just met with 49 other companies that do exactly what you do, and they also have the exact same differentiator. So that they say that they are data driven. So, the question I would have is, how are you more data driven than those other 49 companies? And if you can answer that second question. and that question has meaning behind it, then you have a true differentiator. If you cannot answer that second question, then you need to go back to the drawing board because you don't have that differentiator yet.

Drew: Jon, a true differentiation doesn't really happen overnight, does it?

Jon: It really doesn't. And let me give you a quick example. I'm actually going to use Fiscal Advocate as the example. If someone asks us what makes us unique, we only focus on professional service companies, and we only focus on three KPIs: cash-relative monthly overhead, year-over-year revenue growth, and profit margin. Now, if someone came to us and said, “Well, I just know 49 other companies that do the exact same thing. How are you more unique than them?” The answer is we build our own analytics and benchmarking platform, and we can tell you exactly how much to spend in every single area of your business. And as far as I'm concerned, we're the only company in the world that can do that.

Drew: When you find that true differentiator and tie that into your value proposition, then you have some powerful marketing magic. The Marketing Accelerator Podcast is a production of MarketingAccelerator.com where business leaders gain confidence in their marketing efforts, and marketers turn into high performing leaders. I'm Drew Dinkelacker.