It has been a while since I’ve seen a blog post that was so short yet, so powerful that it made me think and I spend more time on this short blog than any other – in a long time. So, here is that blog from Seth Godin.
The sound of a small bell during a dark night
Pay attention to the line – “Surprise and differentiation have far more impact than noise does”.
In our wonderful world of EMR and EHR, there is truly so much noise. Let’s be honest – No one, I mean no one has a true differentiation from a provider perspective. Just ask a real doctor – not your clients, someone you don’t know that is looking for EMR software.
Look at those two words – Surprise and Differentiation.
Differentiation
Do you really have a true differentiation or is it a perceived differentiation? I really don’t care, as long as your prospects believe you have a differentiation. For example, if your differentiation is that 100% of your clients are happy and no one has left you, your job is to present it such that prospects believe in it. The reason I say that is because all vendors say – ‘we have the best customer service’. Your challenge is to sound the bell that says, here is why we say what we say.
Surprise
Take a look around you – is your website and brochure truly different from someone else? Remember the first days of Google? A white page with one box in the middle, that it. Google had a differentiation – a phenomenal search algorithm. Do you think it would have worked well if their website was just as cluttered as others?
Perhaps, but it would have taken a long time. What worked was the combination of two elements of Surprise and Differentiation.
Both elements MUST work together. I remember those days. The element of surprise in the white page prompted and encouraged me to try it. When I tried, I was then presented with their differentiation.
Conclusion
Make effort to find out your true differentiation – don’t ask yourself or your staff, ask your clients. They are in the best position to tell you. You must ask in the right way and you should know how to ask. Then, experiment with the element of surprise. Some things may work some may not, but you need to try.
