How to make your business stand out in a competitive market

If you want your business to stand out in a competitive market, trying to be different for the sake of being different is rarely the answer. You need to understand what your customers actually care about, what is happening around them and where your business can offer something meaningfully better or different.

I think about this through three perspectives: the customer view, the market view and your point of view. Where those three overlap is where you can find a credible space to play and build a value proposition that gives customers a genuine reason to choose you.

Why is it becoming harder for businesses to stand out?

Customers have more choice, more information and more ways to compare businesses than ever before. At the same time, what matters to them is constantly changing as economic conditions, technology and expectations evolve.

For example, KPMG’s 2026 Consumer Pulse found that price remains a dominant purchasing driver among UK consumers, while trust, convenience and speed are also influencing where people choose to spend their money. (KPMG, 2026)

The exact priorities will obviously differ between a consumer buying a product and a business choosing a new supplier. The important point is that what your customers value cannot simply be assumed, particularly when their circumstances and expectations are changing.

Standing out therefore starts with understanding the market from the customer’s perspective rather than deciding internally what makes your business special.

What is the customer view?

The customer view is about understanding the people you want to buy from you: what they are trying to achieve, the problems they are facing and what influences their decisions.

Market research is a useful starting point. Look at wider trends affecting your customers, how their behaviour is changing, what pressures they are under and what appears to be becoming more or less important when they make a purchase.

But don’t stop with external research. Speak to your existing customers.

Ask why they originally chose you, what they value most about working with you and what you could do better. Equally, understand what frustrates them, what nearly stopped them buying and what alternatives they considered before making their decision.

The objective isn’t to collect compliments. It’s to understand what customers genuinely value and where there might be unmet needs or frustrations that your business is well placed to address.

What is the market view?

Once you understand the customer, look at what they are being offered elsewhere.

Review your main competitors and pay particular attention to their positioning. Who are they targeting? What problems do they claim to solve? What benefits do they emphasise? What proof do they provide and what language is everyone in the market using?

This is where an interesting pattern often appears. Businesses in the same category frequently end up saying very similar things: great service, high quality, experienced team, competitive pricing or tailored solutions.

None of those things are necessarily bad. The problem is that if everyone is saying them, they give customers very little reason to remember or choose one business over another.

Your competitor research should therefore identify both what others are doing well and where the market has become predictable. That gap can create an opportunity to compete differently.

What is your point of view?

The final perspective is your own business. Just because customers want something and competitors aren’t providing it does not automatically mean you should build your proposition around it.

Your position still needs to be credible.

Think about what your business is particularly good at, where you have evidence that you deliver value and what you are prepared to consistently build the business around. Your experience, capabilities, processes, customer relationships or approach may all give you strengths that are difficult for competitors to replicate.

This is also where having a point of view matters. What do you believe customers in your market actually need? What does your industry routinely get wrong? Is there a better way of solving the problem?

A strong position should feel true to the business rather than something invented in a branding workshop.

How do the three views help you find your space to play?

Your strongest opportunity sits where the three perspectives come together:

1. Customer view: What do customers need, value or struggle with?
2. Market view: What are competitors already offering and where are the gaps?
3. Your point of view: What can your business credibly deliver and stand behind?

Imagine an SME operating in a market where competitors predominantly compete on price and speed. Customer research reveals that buyers are actually frustrated by poor communication and uncertainty once they have made the purchase.

If that business is particularly strong at proactive communication, it has potentially found its space to play. Instead of joining everyone else in claiming to be faster or cheaper, it can build its proposition around giving customers greater certainty and keeping them informed throughout the experience.

That position comes from something customers value, competitors underplay and the business can genuinely deliver.

How do you turn that into a strong value proposition?

Once you have identified your space to play, your value proposition should make it easy for customers to understand who you help, what problem you solve and why your approach is valuable to them.

This is where businesses often drift back towards themselves. Years of experience, awards, technology, processes and capabilities become the centre of the message.

Those things can provide important proof, but customers ultimately care about what they mean for them.

If your research shows that customers are worried about risk, talk about how you reduce it. If they are overwhelmed by complexity, make simplicity part of the proposition. If they struggle with unreliable suppliers, consistency may be more compelling than claiming to offer the most innovative solution.

The proposition should connect what your business does well to something the customer already cares about.

Why does customer focus create a competitive advantage?

Customer focus helps businesses make better decisions about more than messaging. It can influence the service, customer experience, product development and wider growth strategy.

Deloitte’s 2026 research into UK scale-ups found that 63% identified market demand and sales execution as the main obstacle to achieving their growth ambitions, while 88% identified customer and revenue expansion as a primary focus. (Deloitte, 2026)

Standing out is therefore not simply a branding exercise. If you understand customers better than competitors and organise your proposition around what matters to them, you give the business a stronger foundation for winning and retaining demand.

How do you make your business stand out?

Don’t begin by asking how you can make your marketing look different. Start by understanding where your business can be meaningfully different to the customers you want to win.

Research the challenges and trends affecting them. Speak to existing customers and understand what they genuinely value. Analyse your competitors and identify where the market is crowded or underserved. Then bring in your own strengths and perspective to determine where you have a credible space to play.

That gives you the foundations for a value proposition built around customers rather than assumptions.

It’s also part of the work I do through my business consultancy. If you’re struggling to understand why customers should choose your business over the alternatives, get in touch and we can start by working through those three perspectives.

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