I recently met for coffee with a mortgage broker -- we became aware of each other, found we had similar business philosophies and decided to meet and see what we could learn from each other.

We got talking about what separated him from his competition and he started mentioning things like "personal service", "keeping in touch with his clients" and "great rates."

This got me thinking about the typical mistake many builders, renovators, and business-people in general make . Namely, not differentiating themselves from their competition but, rather, merely stating what anyone would expect you'd deliver, or simply saying what their competition would also say.

How many times have you found yourself 'advertising' yourself (either in person, or via pamphlets, flyers and the like) and not taking the opportunity to differeniate yourself from the competition?

Take this quick test and see if you use the following phrases that don't differeniate you from your competition. If you do, I'd highly suggest removing them from your vocabulary and replacing them with more specific, measurable results. The list goes on but the point is the same: if it doesn't say how you're better, or quicker, or a similar benefit, you're not differentiating yourself and, therefore, you're wasting time better spent on convincing the listener / reader why you're different.