How are You Different from Your Competitors?

This has been the question nearly all prospects get stumped on when I pose it to them. The general response I’ve been given:

My ‘insert company name‘ delivers high quality and professional customer service. And, our products are also very competitively priced in comparison to our competitors.

If you ever wondered what was marketing talk, this was it. It’s a load of smokescreen with words which could mean something to mislead you from the fact, this company doesn’t have a differentiator.

In the Internet business today:

• Anyone can setup a website design business.
• Anyone can create and customize a blog.
• Anyone can create an application (nearly).

But how many people do you know, could tell you why is their business or product different from the next?

Why do you need to know how is my company different?

If I asked you, where would I buy burgers? You’ll mostly answer; McDonalds. If I asked for fried chicken, you may most likely say; KFC. But these are huge conglomerates right?

So, if I asked you where’s the best chicken rice? You’ll give me a long list of them. Hence, how do I define what I really want here? Simple.

I’ll refine my question, where’s the best chicken rice in Old Town, Petaling Jaya? You’ll give me a shop name and if I asked why, you may tell me because the stall owner uses ‘qi gong’ to tenderize his chicken.

Now, how many stall owners you know uses ‘qi gong’ to tenderize chicken – if existed. By telling me; your designer; your account manager; your marketer; about your differentiator, I can then better communicate on your website – visually.

Therefore, what’s your ‘qi gong’?

How to Modify Your Domain Name at Domain Registry Malaysia

Back in January, Domain Registry Malaysia (formerly MYNIC) decided to introduce a new system for domain name owners to have better management of their domain name.

The new system was integrated but there’s a major problem now. They’ve changed the only known way by domain name owners to update their domain name information. I know this because my friend; Alvin, said:

Haha… its in the main left column INSIDE the Flash banner…

That was the only known way. However, I finally found at the corner of my eye, how to modify my domain name at the Domain Registry Malaysia – that’s a mouthful.

Step 1: Look for the Login Button

Someone must have thought an orange button would’ve been good enough. Well, it isn’t. Because I’d say it’s the most important part for the website followed by the domain name checker and whois.

Step 2: Enter User ID and Password

There’s a minor change here as well. It’s no longer called User ID but username. When MYNIC sends the details of newly registered domain names via email, it’s always User ID and not username. So better inform your clients about this.

Step 3: Enter the Contact Code

Seriously, I wonder if managing a .US is as cumbersome as this. Because a client’s first comment would go, what’s a contact code?

And there’s another interface design flaw here. You need to click on the magnifying glass icon to popup a window to start searching for the required contact code. This is a flaw because the first step in this process is you need to click on the icon first. Now, it’s placed at the end of the field like an action to perform AFTER you filled the field. And by the way, look out for the popup window in case your blocker is switched on. But if you already know it, great! You’ll save a lot of time, trust me.

Step 4: Start trying to search

In the popup window, there are several ways for you to search. From my experience, it was best to search using the first and last name. I tried using the domain name option, it works only sometimes. And the organization option is quite hopeless, I tried searching Simpleet or Exabytes and it had no records.

So best advice I have for you, store your contact codes in a document for better reference.

Step 5: Select the Contact Code

Once you’ve finally found your Contact Code, select it from the list. Now, you can proceed with logging into the system.

Step 6: You are in!

After going through all that, you will finally be logged in. It’s not a looker but I’ll say the system upgrade to finally be able to manage these details is welcomed. Not to mention, they now have a logout link. Yes, they didn’t have that previously.

So, I hope this mini guide helps you and maybe your clients out. And, do read my website review when they launched their new website earlier in 2008. I think the company who did it weren’t very happy with what I found.