[00:00:00] Yahel Demeter: Now, most people. They only think about their direct competition. And why it is wrong? Because it's a sum zero game. Your slice gets bigger when you spend more on advertising and marketing. It gets smaller when others do the same thing.
[00:00:18] The
[00:00:18] thing is that you want and need, by the way, you know, if you want to create a sort differentiation you need , to talk with your indirect competition because indirect competition makes the pie bigger, not your slice bigger.
[00:00:33] Teri Holland: Welcome back to success in mind today, I am joined by Yahel Demeter who has been instrumental in my own rebranding this year. And I am so excited to introduce you to him. Yahel is a business growth strategist with 22 years of experience. Who helps businesses of any kind and size to reach their business goals faster and smarter. By creating new target markets, products and services, and by using solid differentiation. And in this episode, We are going to talk all about differentiation. Grab a notebook. And a pen because you are going to want to take notes unless of course you're driving.
[00:01:14] In which case, just circle back to this later on to take the notes or go to the show notes and we'll have some reference points for you there. All right on with the show.
[00:01:23] You're listening to Success in Mind, the show for high performing leaders, changemakers, and entrepreneurs ready to take your life and business to the next level. If you're ready for whole life success, keep listening.
[00:01:38] Hey, have you been wanting to start your own podcast, but maybe you're not sure how to get started or maybe you find the tech part really overwhelming. Or maybe you're just afraid of what people might think. Once you start sharing your message with the world. I've got you covered. Join me for the five day launch your podcast challenge and let's get started on sharing your voice with the world.
[00:02:03] The link is in the show notes.
[00:02:05] Teri Holland: I'm excited to have you on because when you and I had a conversation about differentiation. Uh, you talked about it in a way that I had never heard before, and so I wanted to have you on to share that with the audience. So let's, uh, let's start with the, the big question.
[00:02:21] What is differentiation?
[00:02:24] Yahel Demeter: Huh. That's, uh, that's not big, it's, it's a huge question. Um, if you imagine that I'm talking about in business aspects, right? Imagine that, that every to business gets present. a present from its target market, from its competitors, from the, uh, from its ecosystem, okay, now with 90 percent of the businesses, uh, remains unopened and that unopened present, that's differentiation.
[00:03:01] Most businesses don't use the differentiation in what differentiation basically does is making your life as a business owner. Much, much, much, much easier. It's what sets you apart from everyone else. And um, if it's good and if you know how to show it, um, your life gets easier.
[00:03:28] Teri Holland: So why is it important? What are the advantages of differentiation?
[00:03:34] Yahel Demeter: So I think, I think that the main advantage of differentiation that is that it eliminates your competition. When you have solid differentiation, your competition is gone. The four key advantages of differentiation is the first one is that it reduces, it reduces the effort and stress levels because it clearly shows your, your target market that your business is the right choice without the need to convince.
[00:04:02] Okay. Now I'm talking about effort here and talking about the need to convince because need to convince is an effort and there is a difference between, and I'll, I'll probably touch it on that. Thanks. During this, uh, podcast, uh, many times, because I think that there is a difference between hard work and effort.
[00:04:21] Hard work is okay. It is good. I think personal, uh, maybe, maybe people will not agree with me, but it's crucial for business success. Effort smells. When you need to make an effort, okay, you make beautiful things, just you send them ugly, okay? When you try too much, it shows. Differentiation helps you to show who you are with hard work, without an effort.
[00:04:50] It happens naturally.
[00:04:52] Teri Holland: Thanks.
[00:04:52] Yahel Demeter: So, in addition to the fact that it reduces your efforts and stress levels, you earn more when you have solid differentiation, because When you have a solid differentiation, you can challenge more for the services. Okay. On one hand and the other hand, you spend less, you spend less on advertising, you spend less on marketing.
[00:05:19] Okay. When you have a solid brand and a solid brand equals solid differentiation. You can charge more. Then you remember that. The third point is that it makes your brand stronger because you get a very clear competitive advantage. Okay. People know who you are, what you do. You create a future proof business.
[00:05:47] Okay. The last one is that it makes you more confident and creative. Okay. Because it connects you to your business in a much higher level. Okay. It's just things happen naturally. So you can see when you're connected to your business, when you're connected to what you do, you understand who you are, the effort levels go down.
[00:06:11] So it brings us back to the first advantage. Okay.
[00:06:16] Teri Holland: Now you talk about there being 10 elements of differentiation. Can you, can you share that with us?
[00:06:23] Yahel Demeter: Yeah, a hundred percent. And, and, um, I suggest, uh, that you, that, um, the people who follow your podcast, maybe it's a good time to get a pen and paper because they are thin and all of them are equally important.
[00:06:35] Um, if you're driving, don't get a pen and paper, but it's highly, highly recommended.
[00:06:42] Teri Holland: Perfect.
[00:06:43] Yahel Demeter: You know, there is a saying that, um, that you can spend your time chasing butterflies, right? But if you, and then they fly away or something like that, but if you create a beautiful garden, right, they will come naturally to you.
[00:06:57] So the butterflies, are your customers, your clients. Okay. So now let's touch these 10 factors of differentiation. Now, the thing is that imagine these factors, these elements as stations. You don't need the whole 10. Okay. But if you get the whole 10, you have solid differentiation. 100 percent solid differentiation.
[00:07:22] So the first one is your brand story. Okay. And your business, and I'm talking you and your business, I'm saying you and your business because when you have a small business, when you have a startup, usually you are your business and your business is you. Okay, it affects everything in your life. That's why, by the way, that's why I said that there is no such thing as small business.
[00:07:49] For small business owners, their business is small. It's huge. So there is a connection between you and your business. So usually your business story is your story. So when we are talking about differentiation in the light of a business story, your authenticity and your story needs to be combined with your target market story.
[00:08:13] So they were able to leverage your story and the combination between your, your two stories To reach their goals. Okay. Is it clear?
[00:08:23] Teri Holland: Yes. Yeah.
[00:08:25] Yahel Demeter: Now, if you want an example, imagine, um, I don't know, imagine a cow. Okay. You get a cow, but the story about this cow or a piece of clothes, like a entry, for example.
[00:08:37] Now the story behind these brands is that they help in violin. They help, you know, to preserve in violin. Okay. So the brand story and your story suddenly. And each one of them gives the back wind, gives the back wind to the other one, okay? Okay. Now, before we move forward, I want to emphasize that authenticity is important here.
[00:09:05] Mm hmm. But authenticity isn't, it's not about saying everything, okay? It's about showing your target market exactly what they need to know in order to understand that you walked the talk. Okay.
[00:09:22] Teri Holland: Okay.
[00:09:23] Yahel Demeter: Okay. Remember that people buy with emotion, okay? Then they justify it with logic, but they buy with emotion.
[00:09:31] Teri Holland: Right.
[00:09:31] Yahel Demeter: Okay. And your answer is this emotion.
[00:09:36] Teri Holland: Okay.
[00:09:37] Yahel Demeter: Any questions? No. By the way, don't, don't, uh, I mean, don't, uh, your listeners obviously can't stop me, but if you feel that something is not clear, don't hesitate to stop me. Okay. I will be able to, uh, go back and try, okay? Sounds good. So the second aspect, the second element is consistent brand values.
[00:09:58] Do you know what a brand value is?
[00:10:00] Teri Holland: Yes, but I don't know if everyone listening does. So maybe.
[00:10:03] Yahel Demeter: So I'll explain. Brand values are five, four or five values that represents, that represent your business. When you, uh, sell one and shows or self operated business. Your values and the business values are practically the same.
[00:10:21] Okay. But we are talking about five as a five words, five values that you want to make sure that when you choose these values, if you want to create again, solid differentiation, these values can't be entry level values. They need to be differentiating values. For example, an entry level value would be professionalism.
[00:10:46] That's the key kit. Okay. To the industry. Okay. If you don't have entry level values, you can't do what you do. Okay. That's why you can't use it as a brand values value. If you want to create a sole differentiation.
[00:11:04] Teri Holland: Okay. Because
[00:11:05] Yahel Demeter: everybody can say it.
[00:11:06] Teri Holland: Right.
[00:11:07] Yahel Demeter: Okay. The, the, the, the, the, the, the, the thing here is to use differentiating values.
[00:11:14] That it is obvious that you are different. For example, the sense of confidence. Mm hmm. Okay. Both of us are professionals. Right? Yep. But one of us can give better sense of confidence. That's a really, really, really good grand value.
[00:11:30] Teri Holland: Okay. Okay.
[00:11:32] Yahel Demeter: Now, consistency theory is, is key here. Okay. That's why you need around five.
[00:11:40] Otherwise you won't be able to be consistent. Now the rules here are very, very straightforward. You can contradict any of them. Okay. Okay. They need to include at least two, two or three is the sweet spot that you need to include in everything you do in how you talk to your employees, how you talk with your target markets, how you use your marketing channels, what messages you choose.
[00:12:10] Okay. If you'll be consistent, it will be very, very easy for the client, for the target market, for your clients to understand who you are, what your values are. Okay. Giving example of a grand value of yours.
[00:12:26] Teri Holland: Oh, one of mine, uh, optimism.
[00:12:30] Yahel Demeter: You see, that's differentiated brand value because it is clear that you're optimistic.
[00:12:38] Thank you. Okay. It is clear. And not everyone can, not everyone can say that, that they are optimistic and that shows, right? So the third part is, the third element is, um, knowing your ideal clients.
[00:12:53] Teri Holland: Okay.
[00:12:54] Yahel Demeter: And I'll tell you this, Terry, most business owners, they don't know. Who they are talking with. Okay. If, for example, I go to any business owners and I will ask this business owner, tell me four things about your last client.
[00:13:13] They will not be able to do that.
[00:13:15] Teri Holland: Really?
[00:13:15] Yahel Demeter: Okay. Yes. No. And why it is so important. First of all, you get to know them. Okay. You know their journey. You know who they are, what they do, what are their pain points. Okay. Right. Second. You know exactly what they want to hear from you. You know exactly what they, what they value.
[00:13:39] Okay. Yeah. Now, how you create it. First of all, you need to, um, you need to divide your target market into segments. Okay. That's solid segments. Then you take a segment and you create a persona, an avatar. For that segment. Any characteristics, anything that you know about this person, okay? You start with describing that person, and then you go to exactly what this person does during the day, okay?
[00:14:13] It is important because you want to know what is their journey. Once you know their journey, You know, what are the interaction points and I will touch it later. Okay. What are the interaction points that you can talk with them? Okay. Now there is a business model that I really like, uh, to use when I, uh, when, when I, um, uh, identify my segments.
[00:14:38] Is it, is it okay? Yeah. That I, uh, share this?
[00:14:41] Teri Holland: Yeah, absolutely.
[00:14:42] Yahel Demeter: So this model is one of the best models, almost as good as the SWOT, by the way.
[00:14:47] Teri Holland: Nice.
[00:14:48] Yahel Demeter: It's called TAM SAM SOM. Have you ever heard of one? No. TAM SAM SOM. TAM is T A M, Total Addressable Market. You take the whole available market, I mean, how big is your largest target market, okay?
[00:15:06] Then you, you think about your sum, which is the serviceable addressable market. This is the percentage that you can realistically capture, okay, with your marketing efforts. Okay? And then that's the most important one, serviceable, obtainable market. That's the sum. Okay. That is how much of the sum, the previous aspect, okay, your business model can actually get.
[00:15:39] Okay. Imagine it like circles, one inside the other. That's how it is presented by the way. Beautiful model. I highly recommend y'all. Uh, the people will listen to your podcast to, to read about it. Okay. First one, leveraging competition. Okay.
[00:15:58] Teri Holland: All right.
[00:15:59] Yahel Demeter: What are, what are the two, um, the two kinds of competition, Teri?
[00:16:04] Do you know? So that's now
[00:16:07] Teri Holland: direct and indirect.
[00:16:09] Yahel Demeter: Correct. Okay.
[00:16:10] Imagine
[00:16:14] your competition as a pie, Teri. Okay. Now, most people. They only think about their direct competition. And why it is wrong? Because it's a sum zero game. Your slice gets bigger when you spend more on advertising and marketing. It gets smaller when others do the same thing.
[00:16:36] Okay?
[00:16:37] The
[00:16:37] thing is that you want and need, by the way, you know, if you want to create a sort differentiation and I'll connect the dots in a second, you need to, to, to talk with your indirect competition because indirect competition makes the pie bigger, not your slice bigger. Now, everything from the diameter of the pie goes to your slice.
[00:17:00] Imagine it, you bring fresh people, fresh audience to the pie and you are the end point. Right. So your marketing costs, they go down. Okay. Okay. Now, let's take an example. Let's take, um, you know what, that's one of my favorite examples here is, is a fitness trainer. Okay. Okay. Okay. Fitness trainer. Right.
[00:17:28] Fitness trainer. So they're the same thing. One of them will spend more money on advertising, they will get more clients. Right? Yeah. That's the, that's the direct competition. That's the slice of the pie. Okay. But the indirect competition of a fitness trainer is what? The TV.
[00:17:44] Teri Holland: Oh, okay. Yeah. Yeah. I definitely didn't think of that.
[00:17:47] Yahel Demeter: The bed, the kitchen, whatever. Yeah. Yeah.
[00:17:49] Teri Holland: Yeah.
[00:17:49] Yahel Demeter: Anything that's events. This person to go in and, and, and, and, and train and do sports. Yeah. So once this personal trainer, this fast fitness trainer, they try to, they, they are able to convince one person on the, in the competition, suddenly the pie is bigger and the slice is
[00:18:14] Teri Holland: bigger.
[00:18:15] Yeah.
[00:18:17] Yahel Demeter: It reduces the costs. And when fresh people come to your slice of the pie, that's your differentiation. You will always, always be the entry ticket to this world.
[00:18:33] Teri Holland: Okay. Okay.
[00:18:35] Yahel Demeter: Next one is your value proposition. Mm hmm. Now, this is a tricky one. Yeah. Value proposition, Terry, you know what, I'll tell you this.
[00:18:48] People don't care about what you offer. They don't. Okay. You The only thing that they care about is what your offer can do for them.
[00:19:01] Teri Holland: Right.
[00:19:02] Yahel Demeter: And what your offer can do for them, that's your brand value proposition. Okay? Okay. So, value proposition that can actually contribute to your differentiation needs to be very, very, very focused.
[00:19:15] Okay? If I throw it to you now, 50 oranges, you won't get, you won't be able to catch any. If I saw one, you'll probably catch it. That's this, that's the thing with value proposition. Now, there is a formula, Larry, and I know that you know it because we talked about it. I won't ask you what it is. Okay, good.
[00:19:32] But the formula is, I help A to do B with C. Remember that. I help A to do B with C. For example, I help business owners to grow their business with C. Strategic planning and coaching. That's what I do. Mm-Hmm. . Okay. That's my value. Okay. Now the thing with the tricky thing with with the value proposition is that it needs to be directed to the stakeholders of your business.
[00:20:06] Who are they? Are they your clients? Your investors, right. The public. Okay. Maybe, you know what? Maybe if you don't have a business, maybe it's the person who sits. In front of you in a job interview.
[00:20:19] Teri Holland: Right. Okay. You
[00:20:21] Yahel Demeter: know, the value proposition is amazing, right?
[00:20:24] Teri Holland: Mm hmm. The
[00:20:25] Yahel Demeter: value proposition, it changes with time it lives.
[00:20:30] Okay. Because, because people change, really. The environment change. Mm hmm. The business ecosystem changes, right? Now, if it doesn't fit, if it, you know, I'll, I'll go a step backwards. A value proposition. It's like a, um, sifter. Okay? Okay. If something comes, comes in to a business, maybe a client, maybe, um, an opportunity, business opportunity, if it doesn't fit your viable position at that particular time, it's a no go.
[00:21:08] Okay. If it's not a clear yes, it's a clear no.
[00:21:13] Teri Holland: Right. Okay.
[00:21:14] Yahel Demeter: Okay.
[00:21:15] Teri Holland: That's so good.
[00:21:17] Yahel Demeter: Next one. Marketing strategies. Thanks. Okay. Okay. Now with marketing, Terry, I think that you heard me saying it once, with marketing, there is this unwritten rule, right? That your work doesn't speak for itself. If it did, marketing wouldn't exist.
[00:21:36] So if you're a business owner, who still thinks that if I do my job, what I do, if I do it right, people will see it, no. And, and, and, and this is where marketing connects to, to, to branding because marketing is like asking someone on a date, branding is the reason to say yes.
[00:22:01] Teri Holland: Oh,
[00:22:01] Yahel Demeter: I like that. Now, yeah, that's, I mean, there are tons of differences between, between branding and marketing.
[00:22:07] This is my favorite, that's my favorite quote. Uh, I can't remember who said it, um, about describing that difference, but this is how you show your differentiation. That's how you show it. In order to create your marketing strategy, you need to use innovation. You need to use your creativity. You take everything you know about your target market, about your competition, about your brand values, about your value proposition, about your business model.
[00:22:38] Everything you know, and you create a marketing strategy. Out of it. Okay. Now the thing is here is that in order to create, I mean, how to create a marketing strategies is an episode, maybe not, not even an episode, 10 episodes. Okay. But I tell you this, when you know who your target market is, you take You take its pain points, you know what a pain point is, right?
[00:23:08] You take its pain points, and you cross these pain points with your, with their um, uh, with your interactions, with interaction points that I talked about earlier. You take these pain points, and in the cross between these pain points, And the interaction points, these are the points when, where, where, where you create the strategy.
[00:23:33] These are your channels. Clearly. Okay. Okay. Now, good differentiation does exactly that. Okay. Mm hmm. In order, in order to do that, you need to think about what are your values? So what are your messages? You know, you understand what your messages are, right?
[00:23:51] Teri Holland: Yeah.
[00:23:52] Yahel Demeter: You need to know what your target market cares about.
[00:23:56] Teri Holland: Right. Okay.
[00:23:58] Yahel Demeter: What your competitors offer. Okay. What your business model can, remember the thumbs up, what your business model can do for them.
[00:24:06] Teri Holland: Right.
[00:24:07] Yahel Demeter: Okay. This is the, this is the connection between the pain points and the interaction points. Okay. Okay. Now, the thing is many business owners. They, when they create a marketing strategy, they use social and billboards and print advertising and email lists.
[00:24:26] So many marketing channels, each marketing channel, and you know that it costs money. PPC costs money. Email plus cost money, okay? Social media, it's money. Organic social media, it's time, which is money. Okay? When you choose, when you have this crossroads between the interaction points and the pain points, you can use only one channel.
[00:24:59] Teri Holland: Wow. Or two. Nice. Okay?
[00:25:02] Yahel Demeter: That's how you save money. Okay. If you want to know the advantages.
[00:25:06] Teri Holland: Yeah.
[00:25:07] Yahel Demeter: The next one. Any questions?
[00:25:09] Teri Holland: No. No. It's good.
[00:25:11] Yahel Demeter: I forget that I talk and talk and talk and talk and you want to ask questions and
[00:25:15] Teri Holland: No, no. It's so good. All good.
[00:25:18] Yahel Demeter: Cool. Cool. So, the next one is Innovational Advantage.
[00:25:23] That's a new word, right?
[00:25:25] Teri Holland: Yeah.
[00:25:27] Yahel Demeter: Innovation. Let's talk about it.
[00:25:29] Teri Holland: Okay.
[00:25:29] Yahel Demeter: It's a buzzword. Innovation. Yeah. But it has, it has two levels, marketing and product or service. Product service is one, marketing is the other. Okay. You can create an innovation approach, innovation factor within your business, meaning within your, uh, how, how you do business, products and services.
[00:25:52] All with marketing, marketing can be creative ideas, you know, guerrilla marketing, everything that you can think about. But the two differences, two kinds of, of, um, of innovation, whether we talk about the marketing, whether we talk about the product or service, the first one is disruptive innovation. The second one is sustaining innovation.
[00:26:18] Okay.
[00:26:19] Teri Holland: Okay.
[00:26:20] Yahel Demeter: Okay. I guess that you know the difference, but I'll just touch it quickly. Sorry.
[00:26:25] Teri Holland: Yeah. Yeah. Please, please explain.
[00:26:27] Yahel Demeter: A standing innovation is how you can do something better. Okay. How can you, how can you improve the functionality of something? Disruptive innovation is how you can change the market.
[00:26:44] When you wake up one day and say, it can't be that it's like this, that it's still like this. When you send a fax to your bank, for example, when you receive a letter in the mail, can't be that it's still like this. That's definition. If you have an idea, that's by the way, where startups begin. Startups by definition are disruptive.
[00:27:17] Small businesses usually are sustaining. Okay. Because small businesses. I'll touch it quickly. Sorry, if, if I,
[00:27:26] Teri Holland: uh,
[00:27:27] Yahel Demeter: the thing is with, with the business models of startups and small businesses are completely different, right? A small business, you, you launch, you start a new business in a known environment, more or less, you know, who are going to, who are the people who are going to buy your products, who are going to use, who are the people who are going to use your services, right?
[00:27:50] When you, when you start a startup, you have a problem. Maybe you can, you can solve it. Maybe you have the answer. But every startup starts with a problem, a problem that in other words says, can't be, that it's like, that it's still
[00:28:08] Teri Holland: active,
[00:28:09] Yahel Demeter: it's disruptive.
[00:28:11] Teri Holland: Okay.
[00:28:12] Yahel Demeter: Okay. So this is innovation. When you have innovation, it makes it very, very hard to, to compete with you.
[00:28:20] Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. That's why innovation equals differentiation.
[00:28:29] Teri Holland: Okay. Can you explain more about how it makes it hard to compete with us? Yeah, because, um,
[00:28:38] Yahel Demeter: because it gives you an edge.
[00:28:40] Teri Holland: Okay.
[00:28:42] Yahel Demeter: It took time for you to think about innovation. It took time for you to think about how you implement it. I'm I'm I'm For the people to understand that you are the one who is innovative in your market, right?
[00:28:58] Teri Holland: Got it. Yeah. A
[00:28:58] Yahel Demeter: new competitor comes in the market. It will take time for that particular business to catch up with you. And if you have a solid differentiation with good innovation, the gap is too big.
[00:29:14] Teri Holland: Okay. It's
[00:29:15] Yahel Demeter: just too big. Cool. Okay. Then, by the way, if the gap is too big, Big companies like, I don't know, Google, Meta, Salesforce, they buy innovative startups because the disruptive gap is too big.
[00:29:33] Teri Holland: Wow. It will
[00:29:34] Yahel Demeter: take years until they will have the know how. Interesting. So, if they can't compete, they buy.
[00:29:40] Teri Holland: Nice.
[00:29:40] Yahel Demeter: Or if it makes more sense to buy than to compete, they buy. Okay?
[00:29:45] Teri Holland: Okay.
[00:29:47] Yahel Demeter: Does it answer your question?
[00:29:48] Teri Holland: Yeah, yeah, that's interesting.
[00:29:50] Yahel Demeter: Perfect. As in superpowers, that's the next one.
[00:29:54] Teri Holland: Nice.
[00:29:56] Yahel Demeter: Okay, now most people, Terry, and I guess you know them, they don't know what they're good at.
[00:30:03] Now, I came across a research a few months ago that said that eight percent, eight of the people, you know their superpowers, know what their strengths are. They don't use it on a daily basis, not in the business and not in the personal life. Now think about it, Thierry, only 20 percent of the people actually work with their strength.
[00:30:35] Okay. Now imagine what happens when you know what they are good at and you implement it in your business or your personal lives.
[00:30:43] Teri Holland: Yeah.
[00:30:44] Yahel Demeter: Okay. Yeah. Okay. How do you do it? Big question. Okay.
[00:30:48] Teri Holland: Yeah.
[00:30:49] Yahel Demeter: Now you start with, I'm sorry about the cliche, right? But asking yourself, what am I good at? Most people don't know.
[00:30:56] Teri Holland: No.
[00:30:56] Yahel Demeter: Okay. So go to ask your friends. Okay. Ask yourself, comes naturally for you. Um, when you're in the flow, you know, when the world can explode and you'll still be doing what you're doing. Yeah. What people ask you for, how you help people. For example, when was the last advice that you gave someone? Okay.
[00:31:20] What was it? Okay.
[00:31:21] Teri Holland: Was it
[00:31:23] Yahel Demeter: about money? Was it about, uh, creativity? Was it about, uh, efficiency? What is it? What it was about? Okay. That's the point where you start, uh, identifying your, uh, your strengths. Okay. Okay. If it doesn't help, ask people. Okay. Right. What, what, what, what is my, my biggest strength? Okay.
[00:31:46] You'll be surprised. Yeah. You'll be surprised. Okay. So if your listeners, if they want to do something, pick up the phone now, call your partner, call your best friend, ask them, what am I good at? What is my main superpower, my main strength? And they will be surprised. Okay, cool. Now the thing is that when you own your business, it also affects your confidence.
[00:32:15] When you're confident, it shows, right? So you want to boost your confidence. Now, if you judge a fish, you know this thing about the fish? Okay, if you judge a fish by its ability to climb trees or something like that, right? Yeah. It will live its life thinking they are a failure or something. It is a failure, right?
[00:32:36] It goes the same, the same way for business owners.
[00:32:38] Teri Holland: Wow. Okay?
[00:32:40] Yahel Demeter: You will, you, you, you will make an effort to be someone you are not. I doubt if you will not use your strength, you're missing the point, you will be making an effort, okay?
[00:32:53] Teri Holland: Right, okay.
[00:32:56] Yahel Demeter: Two more to go, Terry. Any questions about the superpowers and strength?
[00:33:01] Teri Holland: No, no, that's awesome.
[00:33:03] Yahel Demeter: Two more to go.
[00:33:04] Teri Holland: Okay.
[00:33:06] Yahel Demeter: The next one is social proof. Okay.
[00:33:09] Teri Holland: Yeah.
[00:33:10] Yahel Demeter: I'm sorry. Another, something that somebody else said, they say about Google that Google likes you if people like the first, right? The SEO. Oh yeah. Or they rank your site, right? If people visit your website, they rank your site higher, right?
[00:33:23] That's why you use facts, right?
[00:33:25] Teri Holland: Yeah.
[00:33:27] Yahel Demeter: So the same goes to, to, to differentiation. When you have powerful social proof, you are differentiated, differentiated. Okay. Now, this is how you show, this is where you show your differentiation with, with people, with your clients. You need to let your clients for you, and to let them help you.
[00:33:53] So it brings your efforts down. Your hard work down, okay, your, your, your, your, the money you spend on advertising marketing, it goes down.
[00:34:02] Teri Holland: Nice.
[00:34:02] Yahel Demeter: Okay. Because you get help. And the thing is that people actually want to help you. Your customers actually will want to help you if you give them a good product or service, right?
[00:34:15] So the thing here is that you need to do two things to create this magic of word of mouth. I You need to give them the reason, and you need to give them the information. Okay? I'll give you an example. Yeah. About 15 years ago, okay, I got a phone call, uh, from somebody who got my phone number from one of my clients.
[00:34:42] And I asked that person, how can I help? And he told me, I need a photographer for, for a show that I have tonight. I know. Okay. I know how to take good pictures, right, but I'm not a photographer. Right. Yeah. Okay. The thing is that she gave him my number because once she was my client and we had, uh, this, uh, she had a restaurant and we had a live show.
[00:35:07] So the photographer didn't, didn't come. So I took the pictures and uploaded the pictures to the
[00:35:13] Teri Holland: website.
[00:35:14] Yahel Demeter: Okay. Now this case is, it's a different case, right? But the thing is that she gave him the wrong information about me.
[00:35:24] Teri Holland: Yeah.
[00:35:25] Yahel Demeter: You want to make sure, Terry, that. You give people the right information, don't be a hell, okay?
[00:35:35] Once you, once they have the right information, when they feel that their story connected to yours, when you know the value, the values, okay, they will do it for you. This information comes from your branding strategy.
[00:35:52] Teri Holland: Okay.
[00:35:52] Yahel Demeter: From everything that we talked about so far. Okay. Okay. Perfect. So you need to create a social, a very good social proof.
[00:36:01] Okay. Now I'll go a bit deeper here. Okay. Because let's say that you implemented this, that you implement this, uh, through testimonials. Okay. Suddenly we have three stories here. The first one is your story as a business owner. The second one is your client's story, right? Yeah. The third one is your other client's story, okay?
[00:36:28] Because you have two types of clients here. One that used your service and one that is going, hopefully is going to use your service.
[00:36:36] Teri Holland: Right. Okay.
[00:36:37] Yahel Demeter: So the connection, when the store is here, is triple. Okay? Nice. That's what you want to achieve. Okay. Last part. I promise. That's the last uh, sentiment. Is your business growth plan.
[00:36:54] Teri Holland: Okay.
[00:36:54] Yahel Demeter: Okay. Do you know, do you have any idea why it's important for you, for your differentiation?
[00:37:00] Teri Holland: Not at all.
[00:37:02] Yahel Demeter: Okay. I'll jump to the bottom line, then go back up. Perfect. The bottom line is that it gives your clients, your target market, feel that there's always something new, that there's always progress.
[00:37:23] There's always something new.
[00:37:26] Teri Holland: Okay,
[00:37:28] Yahel Demeter: now let's go. Okay. Okay. Business goals relies on two different factors. Okay. The service and the audience. The service part, you can offer your existing products and services. Okay. To new audience, audiences. Okay. Great. The audience one is you can create a new audience to your existing products and services.
[00:37:52] Okay. It's either you go with the product and services route. All your audience trust, um, okay, that's business goals. You need, you always need as a business owner to have in your arsenal new ideas.
[00:38:07] Teri Holland: Okay.
[00:38:08] Yahel Demeter: Okay. And then when you have time, you just implement.
[00:38:12] Teri Holland: Nice. If you don't
[00:38:12] Yahel Demeter: have time to implement them, you hire somebody else to implement it with you.
[00:38:16] Okay. Okay. But when you grow, when your business grows, shows, and people, Yeah. Target market, people, I mean, clients and, and, uh, customers, they want to be where there is gold.
[00:38:33] Teri Holland: Right. They
[00:38:34] Yahel Demeter: don't want to buy from stagnant business. It looks old. It looks, uh, pale. You know what I mean? Okay. Yeah, that makes sense.
[00:38:44] Teri Holland: Amazing. That's incredible. Yeah. Now, now I'll drink. Perfect. Perfect. Can you tell us what is the difference between differentiation and positioning? Because I hear those two terms so often and sometimes may be used interchangeably or it seems like they're being used interchangeably.
[00:39:05] Yahel Demeter: Many people confuse these two, um, these two things.
[00:39:09] I think that the best way to explain it is imagine you have two axes, okay? Horizontal is differentiation.
[00:39:19] Teri Holland: Okay.
[00:39:19] Yahel Demeter: Vertical is positioning. The scale of positioning is more or less. Okay. More expensive, less expensive. More luxurious, less luxurious. Okay. More efficient, less efficient. You position yourself among your competitors.
[00:39:37] Okay. Differentiation is, is much more difficult to understand because the scale of differentiation is as big as what sets you apart from others. Okay. Okay. I'll give you an example. Coaches. Okay. One is here. One is here. They are different. Okay. This one is more expensive. So it's positioned here. Okay. Okay.
[00:40:03] Teri Holland: Okay.
[00:40:04] Yahel Demeter: This is how you explain differentiation in position games.
[00:40:08] Teri Holland: Okay, perfect.
[00:40:10] Yahel Demeter: More or less, and what sets you apart.
[00:40:13] Teri Holland: Okay. And you
[00:40:17] Yahel Demeter: need to have both.
[00:40:18] Teri Holland: I was just going to ask that. I'm like, do we need both? But yes. Okay. Yes.
[00:40:22] Yahel Demeter: 100%.
[00:40:23] Teri Holland: Okay.
[00:40:24] Yahel Demeter: Perfect. But you know what? Positioning is, positioning is important, um, not only for you as a business owner, but only for you, but also for your customers.
[00:40:32] Okay. They need, they need to position you because it makes their life easier. People don't like to think.
[00:40:41] Teri Holland: Right.
[00:40:41] Yahel Demeter: Okay. People want to get answers. Now, you know what? It's not that they don't like to think. They have other things to think about.
[00:40:52] Teri Holland: Right.
[00:40:52] Yahel Demeter: Life, work, right? Yeah. The bank, mortgage, interstate, everything.
[00:40:58] Right. They don't need to think about Terry's positioning.
[00:41:01] Teri Holland: Mm hmm.
[00:41:02] Yahel Demeter: They want you to tell them, to show them where you are.
[00:41:06] Teri Holland: Okay.
[00:41:06] Yahel Demeter: Yeah. It's just there.
[00:41:09] Teri Holland: Perfect. Now I have a couple questions that came from my Instagram community. So the first one is from Lori, and she asked, does differentiation go beyond what we offer as people?
[00:41:23] Yahel Demeter: That's a good question. Slowly. Okay. Perfect. Differentiation, when you talk about differentiation, where as a business owner, as a small business owner, there is not much difference between, between you as a business owner, as a small business owner and your business. So in that case, it's like you create a combined persona and you differentiate this persona between you and your business, but differentiating goes far beyond that.
[00:41:48] Remember the job interview, for example, right? Someone you want to date with. You need to differentiate yourself also in the personal level in your daily on a daily basis on your life to life. You need to differentiate yourself as a business owner in the business aspect. No, there is no difference.
[00:42:07] Teri Holland: Okay, good.
[00:42:10] And the other one is from LJ. And she asks, if market saturation is a concern, is it back to the drawing board?
[00:42:19] Yahel Demeter: I'll get back to it in a second. I want to say something else to Lori. Oh,
[00:42:22] Teri Holland: sure. Yeah.
[00:42:22] Yahel Demeter: People like Lori who ask this question, they ask it for a reason. Okay. It means that there is a confusion between the business owner and the business.
[00:42:36] There is no separation. And that's Slippery Slope.
[00:42:41] Teri Holland: Oh, okay. And
[00:42:42] Yahel Demeter: you need to make sure that, um, you don't slide in the Slippery Slope. Okay. You need to have a clear distinction between who you are as a person, who you are in the business. One of my best friends, uh, she owns a fitness studio. All she talks about is this studio.
[00:43:01] Sometimes I need to tell her, Wait, what, what's new with you? I mean, what's up with you? Okay? You are not your studio. You are not your title. You are not your job. You are Terry. Okay? And you own a business. And in your business, you're a different Terry maybe. Or you're the same Terry. But you need to separate your life.
[00:43:25] Okay. So back to the second question. I am not afraid personally as a strategist. I'm not afraid of saturated market.
[00:43:33] Teri Holland: Okay.
[00:43:34] Yahel Demeter: Okay. Because it has an advantage in a saturated market. It's much easier for you. It is much easier for you to, to show what you're good at. To shine in every differentiation strategy.
[00:43:50] You need to keep. That's a very good question. You need to keep some sort of, um, alignment with your market, something that you don't innovate with. Okay. Something that is similar to others. Okay. Otherwise you'll have to educate your target market from scratch about what you do, about who you are, what your products are, what your services are, what kind of problem you solve.
[00:44:23] Okay. So saturated market is not bad. Okay. Also in saturated market, you can easily, if you analyze your competitors as well, you can easily show what you're good at. It's very easy. Okay. You know who they are, you know, what's your direct competition. It's very, very easy in most cases, in 95 percent of the cases to find the indirect competition.
[00:44:54] So no, I don't think that it's back to the dueling world. On the contrary, things stay exactly where you are.
[00:45:01] Teri Holland: Hey, interesting.
[00:45:03] Yahel Demeter: But think about your differentiation.
[00:45:05] Teri Holland: Yeah.
[00:45:05] Yahel Demeter: Because there is no such thing as a saturated market. There is a bad value proposition.
[00:45:13] Teri Holland: Oh, okay.
[00:45:14] Yahel Demeter: You know, I think that you have a very solid differentiation.
[00:45:17] Teri Holland: Yeah?
[00:45:19] Yahel Demeter: Yes, and honestly, I think that your differentiation, uh, the key aspect of a differentiation is your, you know, I would say it's your optimism, what you show, and you're one of these type of people, business owners, that you always bring a smile to the room.
[00:45:39] Teri Holland: Thank you. I appreciate that.
[00:45:41] Yahel Demeter: That's different shapes.
[00:45:42] Teri Holland: Okay. Interesting. Now, do you have a few more minutes? I have some rapid fire questions. Yeah, you ready? Okay, what is your favorite food?
[00:45:52] Yahel Demeter: Favorite food? Good pizza.
[00:45:54] Teri Holland: Oh, yes, I agree. Um, what is your biggest pet peeve?
[00:45:58] Yahel Demeter: I can't hear people chew.
[00:46:01] Teri Holland: Oh, yeah, that's a big one. Oh, who inspires you?
[00:46:05] Yahel Demeter: My wife.
[00:46:06] Teri Holland: Nice. What are three things you take with you to a deserted island?
[00:46:12] Yahel Demeter: I want to say cell phone, batteries, and food.
[00:46:15] Teri Holland: I
[00:46:17] Yahel Demeter: won't use this cliché. It would be my two daughters and my wife.
[00:46:21] Teri Holland: I love that answer. It's a great one. Who's a celebrity that you would like to have dinner with, dead or alive?
[00:46:26] Yahel Demeter: Celebrity? Um, does it have to be a celebrity?
[00:46:31] Teri Holland: No, not necessarily.
[00:46:32] Yahel Demeter: I'd like to have another dinner with my mom.
[00:46:34] Teri Holland: Good answer.
[00:46:35] Yahel Demeter: Yeah.
[00:46:35] Teri Holland: Yeah. I like that. But for
[00:46:37] Yahel Demeter: me, she's a celebrity, so it counts.
[00:46:39] Teri Holland: Perfect. Perfect. And what is your go to karaoke song?
[00:46:44] Yahel Demeter: Once by Leigh Anne Gallagher.
[00:46:47] Teri Holland: I don't think I know it. I have to look it up.
[00:46:50] Yahel Demeter: It's a good song.
[00:46:51] Teri Holland: Yeah. And it's
[00:46:52] Yahel Demeter: very easy to sing, so.
[00:46:54] Teri Holland: Perfect. Even better.
[00:46:57] Yahel Demeter: Thank me later.
[00:46:58] Teri Holland: Okay. I will.
[00:46:59] For sure. I'm going to listen to it right after we're done. Yeah. And do you have any final thoughts you want to leave the audience with?
[00:47:07] Yahel Demeter: Yeah. That I'll settle back to what I said about this gift, about this present. Now, after we went over these, uh, 10 factors of differentiation, I can send it to you, by the way, if you want to put it in your, in the episode notes, I don't know if you do that.
[00:47:22] Yeah. I can also find it in my website, but. The thing is that now after we went over these 10 factors, these 10 elements, I'm 100 percent sure that at least every one of the people who, every one of your listeners, they have at least four elements that they don't touch and another four that they don't touch enough.
[00:47:53] Mm hmm. Mm hmm. I find, from my experience, that the average is two. Two? Good. Elements that are implemented right out of these 10.
[00:48:06] Teri Holland: Wow. Okay.
[00:48:08] Yahel Demeter: So my final thought is go and think about it. Think about how we create some differentiation with these 10 factors, these 10 elements, because once you do that, I don't want to sound too corny or something, but the magic happens.
[00:48:26] Teri Holland: Yeah. It just
[00:48:26] Yahel Demeter: happens.
[00:48:27] Teri Holland: Yeah.
[00:48:28] Yahel Demeter: Everything is easier. Everything gets easier.
[00:48:31] Teri Holland: Nice. Well, thank you so much for this.
[00:48:35] Yahel Demeter: Thank you for having me. I've always wanted to, uh, do a podcast.
[00:48:40] Teri Holland: Oh, thank you. I'm honored.
[00:48:43] Now, I know that you got value out of today's episode because I sure got value out of today's episode. I've been working with you hell for the past several months and he has been. A game changer in my business. Check out his links in the show notes and connect with him on LinkedIn. You will thank me for it. Thanks for joining us.
[00:49:04] If you got value out of this, which I know you did make sure you share it with at least one other business owner, friend, who you think would benefit from hearing this episode. And then let me know. What actions are you going to take? What are you thinking about differently in your business? How are you applying today's episode to your business to improve things and to differentiate yourself from the masses? Let me know, reach out to me on Instagram at The Teri Holland or on any social media platform.
[00:49:34] Or if you're listening on Spotify, you can leave me a comment right there.
[00:49:38] And as always make sure you rate and review the show. Hope you have a great week and I will be back again later. Bye for now my friends.
