Years ago, when I first started speaking professionally, friends told me I needed a lead magnet after my talks. Something simple. So I wrote this brief guide. At the end of a speech, then, I’d tell the audience that if they wanted a digital copy of “33 Questions to Business Differentiation,” all they had to do was hand me their business card and I’d send it along.

And damn if the guide wasn’t good! You really can uncover a true point of differentiation by following the advice and answering the questions. More than one person has told me that a single question in this guide changed how they talk about their business.

33 Questions to Business Differentiation

In the world of business, standing out isn’t an option. It’s essential. If your offering sounds like thousands or even millions of other offerings, you’re not giving the market any reason to choose you over your competitors.

To make your offering a success – be that offering a consulting project, product, service, book, or speech – your work needs to come across to the market as not just good, but different. What’s more, that difference can’t be trivial. It must have substance.

To help you create significant differentiation for your firm, or for any one of your offerings, I’ve compiled a list of questions that may lead you to the differentiation you’ve been searching for.

Using the list

Below, you’ll see 33 questions. Don’t try answering all of them at once. As a matter of fact, you may only need to answer a few. What you should do is this:

Read through the list. One question will jump out at you. That is, when you read it, you’ll feel the itch to answer it. Go ahead. Answer it.

Open your computer to a blank document or take out a pad and pen. Spend as little or as much time answering the question as you’d like. I’ve seen people take as little as a few seconds or as much as forty minutes to answer a single question.

When you’ve answered that question, again scan the list and see which question intuitively hits you next. Answer that new question. And so on. Keep going.

After an hour or so, put the list away and come back for another session later in the day, or even a few days later.

Once you’ve put in significant work, read over everything you’ve written and underline any ideas, words, phrases, and stories that strike you as promising. Does a single differentiating idea stand out, or can you string together a series of thoughts that lead to a differentiating idea?

If yes, think about all the ways you can use that idea to differentiate your firm and thought leadership pieces. If not, keep answering questions until a differentiator appears.

If you haven’t discovered a differentiator on your own, call upon a small group of your most trusted advisors, and share the best pieces from your written exploration. These advisors might help you see that you’ve already created a differentiator of potential.

A final note: On the list you’ll notice a few questions with a negative slant, such as “How might some of your pet business ideas be wrong?” The reason? I’ve found that when we approach a problem-solving situation from one vantage point only, we get stuck. By thinking about what we don’t like and where we might be wrong, we create room in our minds to mull over interesting ideas we wouldn’t have considered before.

The 33 Differentiation Questions

• Why did you begin your current business?

• Who is your ideal audience?

• How is your ideal audience different from other audiences?

• What can a member of your ideal audience do once you’ve worked with them that they couldn’t do before?

• What does your ideal audience need to hear from you most?

• What makes you the perfect person to deliver your work?

• What about your work is obvious?

• What about your work is surprising?

• Who admires your work, and why do they admire it?

• Whose work do you admire, and how have they influenced you?

• What business ideas do you most envy?

• What client problems do your competitors solve that you don’t?

• What are your pet business ideas, and why is each important to you?

• How might some of your pet business ideas be wrong?

• How does your work make a difference to others?

• How does your work make a difference to you?

• What part of your business do you most enjoy?

• What part of your business do you hate?

• What moments in business have made you most proud?

• What moments outside of business have made you most proud?

• What are your favorite business stories?

• What is the worst advice about your topic you’ve ever heard?

• What do you know about your topic that others don’t know?

• What do you know about your topic that others may know, but haven’t thought to say?

• What obstacles have you overcome?

• What are your weaknesses, and how might they be turned into strengths?

• Where in business have you shown courage?

• Where outside of business have you shown courage?

• What two changes would make the biggest difference to your business?

• What part of your work is underappreciated?

• What part of your work brings the most compliments?

• What is the greatest work-related compliment you’ve ever received?

• Over the next three years, if you could only teach your audience about one idea, what would that idea be?