If you’re running an entrepreneurial company and your marketing story is vague, confusing, or interchangeable with the competitor down the street, you’re leaving money on the table.
Worse, you’re probably making life a bit harder for your sales team, your referral partners, and your customers who are trying to justify paying a premium for what you do.
This is the power of having a great marketing message and a real differentiation strategy.
Three Huge Benefits to Better Differentiation
Marketing messaging and your approach to differentiation are incredibly strategic. It directly affects three things every business owner cares about: higher close rates, more referrals, and the ability to charge more. Let’s unpack that.
Higher Close Rates
When your messaging is dialed in and your differentiation is crystal clear, you make it easier for prospects to say “yes”. You’re not selling; your differentiation is focused on helping them solve problems. Great messaging makes it obvious:
“This company gets me. They solve my problem better than anyone else.”
An effective story removes friction in the sales process. Sales conversations become much easier. Prospects don’t need to be convinced or persuaded. They simply need to be guided and educated on how your team can help.
More Marketing Referrals
Think about how word-of-mouth actually works. Referrals only happen when someone can easily explain what you do, how you’re different, and how you solve real problems. If your message is clear and repeatable, you get mentioned more. And referrals don’t cost a dime!
Stronger Pricing Power
This is the big one. When you’re clearly different, you stop competing on price. You become the only option, not just another option. Demonstrating that you can solve core problems in a remarkable way allows you to command higher prices. That’s what protects your margins and drives investment back into your business.
Related Reading: Marketing Strategy: Say the Right Thing to the Right People
Three Uniques to Build Differentiation
Now, if you live in the world of the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) like I do, you’ve heard of the Three Uniques. It’s a great tool to start the marketing strategy conversation. But let’s be honest: most companies’ Three Uniques are phrases like “great service,” “experienced people,” or “we care more.” Not only are these NOT unique, but they’re also expected. No one is hiring you to give bad service, work with bad people or not care.
That’s why a killer messaging and differentiation strategy matters. It connects the emotional buying drivers of your customers with the functional strengths of your business. And that’s when the magic happens.
Real-Life Examples of the Three Uniques
Take, for example, a construction firm that realized the pain their clients felt most acutely was the infamous punch list—those lingering fixes that delay final sign-off. They created the “Zero Punch List Countdown,” where a dedicated punch list manager shows up 30 days before the project’s end, wearing a white lab coat, and begins proactively identifying and resolving every issue. With countdown emails sent every five days showing the completed items, clients felt seen, supported, and relieved. Not surprisingly, once they unveiled this unique, their sales close rate increased and referrals multiplied. The cost? Practically nothing.
Or consider the chemical supplies distributor that introduced the “EverStock” program. They realized their best customers were terrified of running out of critical manufacturing ingredients and causing production downtime. So, they offered to stock essential inventory onsite at no charge, ensuring manufacturers never experienced a costly production line interruption. That small operational change transformed the relationship from “vendor” to “partner” and gave them permission to charge a bit more than anyone else.
Most engineering firms plan forward from day one and hope it all lines up by the end. One firm flips that with something they call the “Reverse Timeline.” They start at the deadline and build backward, locking in every milestone to avoid surprises. Clients get a quick text at each checkpoint, so they always know the project is on track. It’s a small shift, but it makes a big difference, especially compared to firms that keep clients in the dark until the final week.
These aren’t marketing gimmicks. They’re solutions to real pain points, packaged in a way that’s tangible and memorable. They work because they directly address and eliminate the core problems of the buyer. And when you make someone’s problem disappear, they don’t only say thank you. They tell people about it, they pay more for it, and they remember it.
Related Reading: Three Ways to Use Your 3 Uniques in Your Marketing
Be Bold, Gain Traction
Get uncomfortable. Get specific. Get bold. Dig into what really makes your company different not just operationally, but emotionally. Developing what a set of “remarkables” means creating specific, nameable solutions to your buyer’s core problems. Not features. Not benefits. Real, operational ideas that remove a pain your customer feels. That’s how you make marketing more effective, sales teams more productive, and pricing much less of a conversation.
If you’re serious about scaling, stop treating marketing messaging like a branding exercise or a website project. It’s strategic conversation around differentiation. It deserves the same focus as your financial model or your operational plan. Because the companies that win aren’t just better. They’re “remarkable” and they’re darn good at telling the right story to the right people.
Struggling to define what truly sets your business apart?
Find an Implementer who can help you craft your Three Uniques, sharpen your differentiation, and position your company to win more deals at premium prices.
