114 - Invisible Differentiators in Marketing

Rich: In competitive B2B markets, most companies say they're different, yet their messaging, visuals, and customer experience a lot of times look identical to everybody else. Um the strongest differentiators aren't always visible. Um you feel them, they're invisible, they're intangible, they're hidden. So how do marketers uncover and communicate what really sets their brand apart? Let's find out. Let's do that. All right. So the term invisible differentiators or hidden differentiators, we're throwing that out, Zach. What the hell is that?

Zac: Um, so how do I explain this? It's basically a certain je ne sais it's the things that set your brand apart that aren't necessarily seen, right? So a lot of the times we're focused on things like features, price, visuals. But how do you actually build trust and go things beyond that? Because there's a in B2B marketing, there's a lot of sameness, right? Yep.

Rich: Oh, tons. And I think, you know, when it comes to consumer products as well, a great one that I always think of is Coke versus Pepsi, right? So for me, they do taste different, but you know, when Costco only had Pepsi, they've switched to Coke now, but when they only had Pepsi, I would get my hot dog and a Pepsi for $1.50. And I would drink the Pepsi and I wouldn't feel bad about it. But like if I had my choice, I would always go Coke. So do I go with Coke because of the taste? Or is that only part of it? Is part of it also the nostalgia? As a kid, we watched the Disney movie on Sunday nights. We we were able to have a Coke in the evening, which was rare for like the sugar and the caffeine. We got a candy bar, we had popcorn, and that was kind of our Sunday evening ritual. Um, so is that a piece of it? Is it the I'd like to teach the world to sing song? Is it the polar bears? Is it the Santa trucks? Like, yes, taste matters, but there's all this thing around Coke that has nothing to do with taste that keeps me tied to the brand. Um, and I think it's also why when Coke changed their formula and they did new Coke, which was awful, it was to be more like Pepsi because Pepsi was gaining market share. People revolted. They didn't just switch to Pepsi or stop drinking Coke. They basically protested the company and demanded, and then you got Coke Classic back. So even when that thing that's the tangible goes away, you want that thing back and you push the company to do it. So I agree. Like, you know, with consumer products, you have a lot of things. There's color, there's quality, there's taste, there's build, there's performance, like all those things. And you have some of those things with B2B, but we go through this as well. Like, you know, what makes us different than other marketing agencies? Oh, it's our people. Uh-huh. And every marketing agency says it's their people. So what makes our people different, or what makes us different? So I think this is going to be really fun to tuck into. Um, and I'm really excited about it. But um, we should probably do our cocktail. Yeah. So we're doing the modern English.

Zac: Yes.

Zac: What the what is that, Zach? So this is another fall drink, but it's not so much so that it's like, oh, this time it's more of like an upscale, like higher-end version of a fall drink, right? It's not witches brew or like something super themed. Yeah.

Rich: Um Harry Potter's Christmas beer butter or anything like that or butterbeer. Butterbeer, yeah, that's what it's called.

Zac: So this is the modern English. It comes from Michael Waterhouse, a longtime New York City bartender and bar consultant. Um, so this is a gin sour, similar to a gimlet, but flavored with pear. But what makes it gimlet, my bad. It's okay. I feel like I always I'm here for you. I'm here for you. Thank you. All right, so a gimlet, but what makes it different than a normal gimlet, which is usually fresh squeezed lemon juice, simple syrup, and some kind of well, it would be some kind of pear syrup or pear liqueur for which flavor of pear this is. But um instead, this uses lemon wedges, maple syrup, and a pear slice all muddled muddled together in what's called bulldog gin. Oh, I have bulldog gin.

Rich: Um, it's a good one. It's um it is really good. Um, I had my I'm finishing my coffee and like it's got caramel and I'm a little sticky. Um, but yeah, so this one I was like, I was like, what the hell is this? So first of all, I think you say gimlet because you get you came right off gin and then gimlet, so you're used to that soft g. Um, but yeah, that's okay. No worries. Um I was like, I don't know what this is, and then I looked at it and I'm like, oh, I want this like right now. Like, this is a breakfast drink to me. Um, so you get a quarter of a fresh pear, so that's like probably a couple slices, peeled, seeded, and cubed. Um, because you don't need the peels in there, the peels don't muddle. Two lemon wedges, and those can have the rind on them, it's fine. Uh, half ounce of maple syrup, two and a half ounces of bulldog gin, or your favorite gin, but I would definitely try to get a genuine English gin for this one. Um, and then you can garnish it with a cinnamon stick if you want to. I mean, cinnamon and pear and lemon and maple syrup, like oof. I know. Um, so in a shaker, you throw in the fresh pear lemon wedges and the maple syrup and you muddle that. Uh, so hopefully you have a muddler. Um, if not, you can use, you know, like a spoon or almost anything that'll just get in there. Um, you add the gin, fill it with ice, and shake it until it's well chilled. Now you got a lot of stuff in there with the pulp from the lemon and uh fruit and the rind and all that. So you're gonna double strain it into a coupe glass. So you're gonna basically what I do with these is I strain it into like a measuring cup or something. And from the measuring cup, I strain it into my coupe glass so that you get that double strain going. Uh, and then garnish it with a cinnamon stick and then wow, refreshing.

Zac: It also I love it.

Rich: It seems like aside from you need fresh pears, um, which you can get year-round because they grow them in other countries and whatnot, but um this would be a good summer drink. I could see this just like a as a porch sipper, I think is what we call them, right?

Zac: Mm-hmm. I it could be honestly, it could be good any time of year. The reason that I like it as a fall cocktail is because of the maple syrup and cinnamon. I feel like those are kind of warmer flavors. I also like that they uh cubed the pear. I think that's really interesting. I think that'll like I really want to try this one.

Rich: Yeah, you know what I want to do now too is um like I made mango margaritas um a while back. You know, we got some frozen, fresh frozen mango from Costco. Uh I want to do a pear margarita, like with actual like fresh pear. I think that would probably be good. Pear and tequila? Sounds interesting. All right, well, maybe another time. If I if I invent that drink, I'll let you know. I'll look it up and see if somebody else has first, though. Well, who knows? All right. So uh I think we can take a quick break and come back and talk about uh invisible differentiators and get a little more detailed into that for B2E marketers. All right, we are back to talk about invisible differentiators. So um I think that like, you know, that thing you can't feel with companies, with brands, with business partners is always interesting. Um, I mean, people can stay in relationships, right? Too like, you know, when you and Chloe got together, there was probably like there was the tangible stuff where, you know, how she talks, how she treats you, how she looks, all of that. But there was probably something as well that was just like, I don't know, I just feel good when I'm with her. Like, true, yeah, that kind of thing. So as humans, we're wired for that. And so as marketers in B2B businesses, you can tap into that. So um, why is it important, Zach? Like, why do we care about these invisible differentiators?

Zac: Well, 83% of B2B buyers say who buyers who trust a brand say they're more likely to continue doing business with them, even when competitors offer similar products or services. So I think that's some that's important, right? Like that trust that invisible invisible differentiators create.

Rich: Right. Yeah, when you've got a commodity, like when what you're doing becomes a commodity, what's different about you? You know, and yeah, you can change your product, you can change your pricing and all that. Competing on pricing is not sustainable ever. Uh Walmart learned that the hard way and has tried to kind of bounce back from it. But yeah, it's like, what is that thing that keeps me with you if somebody else is offering the exact same thing you do?

Zac: Exactly. Uh I I have another stat that I want to share.

Rich: I mean, I think this is a good one. It's why it's important, right? Like, because what do we care about? Revenue. We care about the bottom line. So go ahead.

Zac: Maintaining consistent branding and messaging can boost revenue by as much as 33%. Reinforcing how clarity and cohesion quietly build credibility over time.

Rich: Yeah. So it'll like one, people care about it. And even in a B2B space, I care about who I'm working with and I care about those things beyond what I'm getting. And that's why we pay more for stuff, right? Which is with the boosting revenue by 33%. If you've got that differentiator, you're going to be able to charge more and people won't mind because there's this other thing keeping them with you. It's not about price. Now, you can't just jack prices through the roof. Like that's not gonna work. But you can charge a little bit more and you know, apparently about a third more, um, according to statistics. Um, so let's talk about some invisible differentiators. Like we know they're intangible, features, pricing, visuals, those are all tangibles. Got it, your color, all of those things. Um, but what are um, I don't know, what are some in invisible things that you found as you were going through prep for this?

Zac: I think for me, reliability is a huge one. If a company always delivers on their promises or communicates like really proactively, I think I subconsciously trust them more, right? Even if someone else offers a cheaper deal, if that trust is being built where I can see that they're reliably uh say doing what they say, that's a big one for me. Like it's one thing to promise a lot of things, right? But actually delivering on that promise is another. Yep, 100%. I think that's what makes it an invisible differentiator, right? It's hard to prove that sometimes to somebody that hasn't worked with you before. And I know we'll cover like how you can kind of showcase these invisible differentiators later, but yeah, that's it's a big one for me.

Rich: Yeah, I think that's a good one. Um, like like the experience, right? I I always kind of go back to that experience is your brand. It's not necessarily just your color colors and logo and all that stuff. But that experience, kind of we're drilling into that on what is that that gives people what they want. I think there's also a piece about with B2B, we always talk about like, do we want to go to dinner or lunch with these people? Do we want to have drinks with these people, independent of working with them? So if you're working with an agency and they came to your town, because most of us are remote now anyway, like people are working with agencies all over the country. Um would you want to, would you be excited to go to dinner with them? Or if your boss is like, hey, we're gonna go to dinner with the agency, would you be like, oh, okay, those guys, yeah, that's great. That's a big one in our business. And I think it's a big one in in sales, in B2B sales. I've got a friend who does, I honestly don't know what he does. It's some sort of IT thing for very large companies. And we were talking about how um, you know, they'll blow money on golf. And he's like, it's not about the money for the golf or doing this, it's giving them this experience at a unique golf course that's really expensive, but it's also spending that day with them and being human and laughing and having jokes and having inside jokes and getting them to like me as their rep so that when we get to the contract negotiations, it goes smoother and things work better. And I'm like, yeah, that's a hundred percent right.

Zac: And you can't really measure things like that, right? You can't measure vibes or empathy, but you can definitely feel them. And that feeling, that emotional signal that like kicks in before the logic is exactly kind of what we're talking about, and things that you need to consider. Because if you're mainly focusing on we need to be the cheapest, we need to be, we need to have, you know, the best visuals, but you won't have any substance behind it, you're really gonna suffer when it comes to these invisible, invisible differentiators that are actually driving people towards your business.

Rich: So yeah, as I was looking this up, like um a couple things came up, like operational excellence, like process came up a lot as an invisible differentiator. And even things like um logistics were in there. So logistics is intangible and tangible, but if you're really good at logistics, your customers won't know because they won't have complaints. You won't be out of stock, you won't be late with delivering things. The thing that came up there was uh Trader Joe's. Um they have a lot of their own unique products, they're cheaper, but they also have this like um oh, it's the the treasure hunt sense of discovery. Yeah, although they don't have their own vibe. We get into that in another episode about some of the internal vibes at Trader Joe's. There's there's there's a mythology and lore there that's apparently pretty true.

Zac: And I think like if you think about the cashiers too, right? Like that sense of discovery is really cool where you're finding these new products. And my favorite is the frozen section. I feel like they have the best frozen food. You can get like frozen paella, and that's really good. But yeah, it's wild. Besides that, you think about the cashiers, right? Like they're always asking you about your day. I'm pretty sure they're trained to like be like, oh, this is awesome. Like, have you ever had this before? Like, I use this and this, this, and that.

Rich: And you get that at Costco. My favorite though is when, and it happens at Costco a few times, because Costco and Trader Joe is both right, like they rotate stuff in, it's there and then it's gone, which is where that sense of discovery and adventure comes in. Um, those are two of the stores that I actually enjoy walking every aisle in. Most stores, like if I go to Target, I honestly, if I go to Target, I'm going to buy it online and have them bring it to my car. I'm not even going to go into the store because I don't want to. But um, Trader Dozen Costco, like, I'll always go in. But when the cashier is like, oh wow, I hadn't seen that. Have you had it yet? Like, is it any good? Like when you discover. And part of me is like, okay, is it fake? I've been taught to say that to make me feel good. Like, like I won the treasure hunt today and found something new. Um, but yeah, that affirmation is in there.

Zac: But yeah, the reassurance where you get you find something cool, and then they they say, Wow, this is a really good thing. Have you had it before? I love it. And then you're like, I made a good choice.

Rich: Yeah. Um, so the other thing is you flip it to B2B. Obviously, Trader Joe's B2C, um, but B2B, um, there is, you do have logistics, you do have operational excellence, and it's like how you deliver whatever you're delivering. It could be like stuff out of your brain. It doesn't have to be a tangible thing. Um, and improving that is something we talk about a lot, is just improving our processes and getting smoother and quicker. And the funny thing is, it makes it feel better for your employees too. Like if things are smooth, you've got good processes, everybody knows what they are. It's better for your customer and they're gonna have that feeling. And moreover, if they do go somewhere else that isn't like that, that's where they're gonna feel it harder. Sometimes you don't notice that invisible differentiator. Like you said, like you can feel the vibe, but you don't know what it is until you're gone. And then, like, you're like, oh, that's what it is. I never had to worry about things coming to me on time because they always were. And now I'm how constantly reaching out and being like, hey, where is this? What's going on with this?

Zac: Um, and I think you can boil that down to consistency, right? Consistency across everything you do because people that uh you work with see that, right? Are you consistently delivering things on time? Are the processes that you're sharing with me and hammering down into me, hammering into my head, like actually working? Yeah, 100%. Yeah, so I think that boils down to consistency. That's a good one too. What like who would you say is like a good B2B brand or that you can think of that like a B2B company that like does a good job of having invisible differentiators? I was kind of thinking of HubSpot because they provide a lot of like resources and the people that you work with can be consistent, but it didn't really like click that much for me. So I was curious if you had any off the top of your head.

Rich: Yeah, I mean, I mean HubSpot's an interesting one. I think they're sort of hit and miss on their invisible differentiators. Um, they are trying to innovate faster, so they're they are trying to make the physical product different and better and faster. Um but yeah, and I do think that the way their people relate to you is a really interesting one. So that that company culture feels good. You know, we like it when our culture and a client's culture like almost feel like you could merge them and they would just overlap and be the same and be nice because it's comfortable. Um boy, B2B, B2B. I'm trying to think of like who we um who we shop with. So I mean our bank actually. So we use Dundee Bank in Omaha. Shout out to the folks at Dundee. Um, small local bank. Um, you know, some things are different than you would get from a giant corporate bank, but what isn't is I get the responsive and they are proactively responsive. So we have three accounts, and two of them are just for like things coming in and going out. So they go up and then they go down to almost zero, and they go up and they go down to almost zero. And sometimes we screw up and don't transfer enough money to cover like the giant Google bill coming out or you know, all of the payroll, and it's in the operating account. It's just not in the payroll account. Um, I had them like actually call me on a Friday afternoon to say, hey, your payroll account is like $6 negative, and they have a like a 24-hour grace, I think it is, or something, like before they'll do an overdraft fee. So they're like, as long as you like put money in there like today, like just do a transfer, it'll like you'll be fine. And it's like, so I hadn't looked at it. I hadn't looked at the alert on my phone because we all have 4,000 alerts on my phone. But someone at the bank reached out and was like, hey, I got this alert and just wanted to let you know, like, just transfer like 10 bucks so that it stays whole until your next payroll. Because he also knows, like, you know, our main account had tons of money in it, totally fine. And he knows we use those other two to like run things through and just keep them separate. Um, so I think banking is an interesting one where that um, that service, that delivery, that proactiveness all become good.

Zac: That they had to like these Carmen, like Yeah.

Rich: They've also just been easy to work with, like, right? Like when I added Jessica to the accounts, it was they're like, well, she has to come in and sign some things, which I get. And so she was down here and we just went in and they had all the paperwork. She signed it. It took like five minutes and we were out and we're done. Um, when we did that with a larger corporate bank, it took almost an hour to get it done. Um it was so I think that's a good one.

Zac: Yeah. And I think honestly, the reason that we struggled to find any companies that we could think of on the top of our head is the whole point of this episode, right? Things often get buried behind services, pricing, like that stuff. So it's harder to differentiate from company to company. And I think our next point, right, is why do some of these individual and invisible uh differentiators get so buried or lost? And for me, I think I think it's like we've been saying, right? People are too focused on the surface level things, great service, customer-first approach, innovation. Those are all easy to say, but it's all the same thing across the entire industry.

Rich: Yep, yeah. And I think that that's when you um you start looking at those things. And I think so. Like those are just like generic terms. It's like, we're great. Well, that's lovely. That worked for Frosted Flakes for a really long time, and um, it doesn't work for you. Um, I think a lot of companies also just don't know what their intangibles are. Um and and that can be a good or a bad thing because you might have them. You might be delivering really well and you just don't know it, but you should. Um and you might just also not have them. Like you might just be this, you might be truly be this boring B2B company that just does what everybody else does, and you're fortunate to have the customer base you do, and you're a look-alike, and people can you that's a business model, right?

Zac: If that's you though, too. I think it's important to ask yourself if you stripped away the logo, the price, and like all those surface-level things, what would make someone still choose your brand? And chances are you can probably come up with something. Hopefully, if you can't, then it's probably start, it's probably time to start thinking about your brand as a whole and what actually differentiates you.

Rich: Yeah, and you can you can figure that out. I mean, one, you can ask your customers. And if you get something like, I don't know, like we just really vibe with you, like that's okay. That means that there's something there that's invisible. Now, vibing is not a differentiator, but there's something under that that you've got to kind of unpack and figure out. Um, you can talk to your employees too. Like those are great places to figure that out.

Zac: I mean, you you nail it, right? Your clients are able to tell what differentiates you because they chose you. So why did you choose us? Like, get that insight from them. Like I totally agree.

Rich: Even more important when clients leave. Why did you leave? You know, what happened? Like, did you fail on one of your like hidden differentiators or invisible differentiators? Like, have you shifted your company and you this thing that everybody likes about you you didn't think was important, but it actually really is? Um, you know, did you did you get rid of their favorite person at the company? You know, that could happen too.

Zac: Well, and like thinking about that too, like why would someone leave or maybe why your invisible differentiators aren't really showing themselves and they're still really invisible? I think it breaks down to again consistency, consistency across your teams. Is everyone on the same page with what makes you different? And when marketing is putting out marketing materials and like promotional stuff, like does it like reflect those invisible differentiators and your brand as a whole? Are they talking with sales? Are the people that are selling your product or service like actually, you know, putting out like is everyone on the same page? Which goes back to processes as well, right? Like if nobody's on the same page across your business or there's a misalignment between leadership and the actual team themselves, on what makes you different, that can create some confusion and bring you back to, oh, you know, we we have the best price. We, you know.

Rich: Yep. And I think that so what's interesting is you get to things like speed and price uh and quality, and those independently aren't necessarily a differentiator. But sometimes when you put them together, they can be. So if you've got some sort of proprietary technology or a methodology, or you've honed a process to a point where you can compete on price, but you also deliver faster than anybody else competing on price, um, you're in a really good spot. Um, it's the old with marketing, you know, fast, good, cheap, pick two because you can't have all three. Well, if you can figure out how to do all three, that's gonna be a hidden differentiator. And people are gonna wonder, like, people, it's a thing that people wonder, how do they do it? How does this work? Like, how do they get it to me? And I don't have an issue with the price, and it's super quick. And I like what it is when I get it. Like those types of things um can be really interesting. Um, I think with AI, so I was on a webinar yesterday um with another HubSpot partner. They've created their own AI agents that do specific things, like very detailed niche specific things, but they're things that almost everyone using a CRM would want to do. And so, and the way that they do it and the and the way you can program it is super easy. And so they're offering like free trials and stuff, but they're packaging them at like $100 a month, $150 a month to have this AI agent in your HubSpot portal. Technology, right? They created a combination of things with AI with an agent that will go do this kind of lower level research stuff and pull insights that would be harder for you to get or longer for you to get. That's a differentiator. And then the price, I was like, I don't know if that price is too much or too little. Like, because it's just an agent, right? Like it's not like a full HubSpot suite. But um, yeah, and they were offering, like, you know, you can try it for 30 days and then we'll shut it off unless you pay. And it's like, okay, like that's also a big one. Try before you buy can be a differentiator as well.

Zac: True. Yeah. So how do you how do you make these invisible differentiators like actually visible? Like, that's kind of like the next point I definitely want to cover. Um, I think I think one way to do it, right? And the it's probably the most obvious, is to show the proof. Create case studies, pull testimonials, whatever you think your invisible differentiator is, or whatever your customers are saying it is, you need to like put that out there. And getting it straight from the source is the easiest way.

Rich: Yeah, and I think that if you're um you know, we we look at certain things, and in some industries price matters. And even if you're not competing on price, you've got to kind of list it. But I think um if you're not as concerned about price or you're one of the more expensive in the market, you can really push those other pieces in your testimonials or in your case studies or whatever, and not show like it's basically here was the problem, here's how we solved it, and here's a little hint at our secret sauce on how we did it. So you see things like, you know, through our proven proprietary process, we were able to blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Um so I I think that show, don't tell, but you also can't show too much because um you would you might risk somebody else stealing it. But ideally, if this is truly unique to you, nobody can steal it.

Zac: Well, and it's it could be something as simple as right, like some case studies are better than others. It's the way you tell the story. And I think if you tell the st like if you, for example, or say we're really consistent like with our clients, and we're able to handle like I I don't even know, like we're able to handle like difficult situations, like whatever comes up. You could like have that client tell that story for you through a case study or testimonial.

Rich: So we got known as two things when we first started working with HubSpot just by accident. One, we're the people who can um make you feel comfortable and good again after you have a bad experience with another HubSpot partner. So we actually had HubSpot reps coming to us and being like, hey, we've got a client who's gonna churn, their partner sucks, they're really upset about it. We really need to save them. And we've heard like you've done this a couple of times, and you're pretty good at helping people like step into maximizing this and that you're nice people. And it's like, okay, great. Well, we'll do that. Um, and so we've had several of those where we've just like, we've actually stabilized the relationship they had with HubSpot to keep them on the software. And that also then ingratiates us to HubSpot, right? That's one of our invisible differentiators for HubSpot, is oh, they're really good at helping us keep and save clients. Um, our retention is also higher than most diamond partners. Um, and that's our business model, right? Like we hold on, we wanted that deep relationship, which is probably one of our invisible differentiators. Like we are more about the relationship than the short-term profit, and we want you to be with us 10, 15 years. Um, the other thing we got known for is uh cleaning up messes. So my CRM's a mess, help me clean it up. And it's it's not something we necessarily love to do, um, but it's it's good money and we know how to do it. Um, and we've got like, and so that got us to develop like methodologies for okay, how do we clean up faster? Um and we have different pricing. If you have data hub, there's tools we can use to clean it up much faster. If you don't have data hub, we're going to charge you more because it is more manual for us to do it.

Zac: We're good at solving headaches.

Rich: Yeah. I think, you know, one of the things that we have, I think, um, and I've been thinking about how do we replicate this in other areas, and we've actually had clients ask us do you have this for XYZ? Our web process, right? Websites are difficult, they take forever, they never launch on time, the client doesn't enjoy them, the agency doesn't enjoy them. It's a big pain in the butt, but you get this really neat thing at the end. Well, Caitlin and Jesse sat down and they were like, How do we fix this? Because they're also profitable. So, how do we fix this? And came up with an eight-step process that is rigorous, that we do and we educate clients on, we set the expectation and tell them up front what their responsibility is and what ours is. And we go through it. And the first website we did with that ended on time, on budget. And everybody was like, that was actually a good experience. We enjoyed doing that. And it's only gotten better with, you know, since we started doing only HubSpot websites. Like we don't do WordPress or anything anymore. So we know the technology. Uh, we also have um specific partners that we work with on the technology side, building websites. So all of that is kind of this process where I think we can say, and people will be like, I don't believe you. Like, oh, I can do good, fast, cheap. Like people be like, yeah, you can't. When we say we can get your website done on time, on budget, and you can enjoy the process. Like as a former like marketer client side, I'd be like, bullshit. Like you, that is just no. But when we and when we promise that and when we talk about it, it's surprising. And at the end, when we get our C sets back, we deliver it. So, and we had somebody else who asked her, like, do you have that thing, like that process document for like how you approach Google Ads? And I'm like, no, because like we, it's a whole different thing.

Zac: Can you replicate this so that we can have the same experience that we feel the same way we did when you were making our website?

Rich: And it was also about like uh getting approval from senior leadership. You know, they like seeing you have this tangible thing that we can measure. Did you do each of these things? Like, um, so there's accountability there as well. Accountability can be a secret sauce as well. So yeah, it's interesting.

Zac: Um right on the point.

Rich: I know. Before we close, I do want to point out like if anybody has been watching for a while, you've seen my Monstera back here and it's been looking very sad. I got a moss pole for it that's like flexible, and I've wrapped it around it because it was just like hanging over the edge because it really wasn't supporting itself. And it has no brown leaves, it's super happy, it's getting more light. So Caitlin is very pleased with me for how I've been taking care of my Monstera, as is Jessica. Because they were both like, you need to do something with that. It looks really sad. And I'm like, Yeah, it does. Um, so and my bird of paradise back here is still doing okay, and there's a spider plant that's just sort of hanging out. But the Monstera. It's a nice picture, it's looking pretty good. We should you should pull some stills like a before and after from earlier episodes so we can take a look.

Zac: Sold that over. I'll definitely put it in.

Rich: All right. Well, I think that was a good one. Um, and hopefully it helps everybody to find their invisible differentiators. You can also create them. Like they don't have to just be inherent that came up. You can generate invisible differentiators. It's hard or can be hard. But, you know, look at your culture, look at your methodology, look at your processes, look at your people, like see what you're doing that's different or what you could be doing that's different.

Zac: And I think the best part about invisible differentiators is that they can't be copied, or they normally can't be copied. It's something that's unique to you. Anyone can match your product or price, but no one can replicate how you make your customers feel. So Yep.

Rich: And like even our eight-step web process, like, yeah, you could go through those same steps, but we've got a whole lot behind that in infrastructure and partnerships and processes and how we do things that you'd have to figure out because they're not inherent in the document.

Zac: So and we talk about it a little bit in our webinar that we did recently. Yeah, we do. We do probably put that in the show notes to check it out.

Rich: Yeah, definitely.

Zac: All right. It's an episode. That is an episode. As always, you can find our agency at antidote71.com and all of our socials there as well. If you have a question you'd like to send our way, head to ctapodcast.live to shoot us an email. Or even better, leave us a voice message. Uh, we know some of you are scared to call in. Please do. Our hotline is at 402-718-9971. Your question will make it into a future episode of the podcast, and it will probably be its own episode at this point.

Rich: So All right, Zach would love it because then he doesn't have to plan an episode. He gets like the topic handed to him in a question, and we just go from there. And we'll thoroughly answer your question. So all right. Well, uh, we'll have another episode next week. Not sure what it is. We're kind of getting through the holidays. We'll have a little holiday break as well coming up. But um, yeah, see you next week. And it was good to see you again, Zach. Always a pleasure.

Zac: Great seeing you. See you next week.