ISP Business Tools ...cont'd

By Michael Patenaude
Global X Change

Copyright © 1999 Global X Change, Michael Patenaude.

This document may be used in its unmodified form by non-profit organizations and others working for international development.

Introduction   |   Cash Flow Forecast   |   Project Estimating   |
Service and Product Differentiation   |   Contract Checklist   |   Marketing Plan Template

4.3 Service and Product Differentiation Worksheet

This template is meant to help organizations think about what makes a service or product stand out from the competition and to assist organizations with competitive rankings across their service and product lines. The comparison is to be made between your organization’s services and products, and specific competitors and their services and products.

Criteria in categories #1 and #2 address uniqueness from the perspective of how a customer might evaluate an organization’s product or service offering. Criteria in category #3 address the relative sustainability of competitive advantage in the face of market competition.

Using the Spreadsheet

The following steps outline how to use the service and product differentiation worksheet:

1. Rate your product or service relative to the competition according to the criteria by assigning a numeric value; 0 = no advantage; 10 = complete advantage.
2. If any of the criteria are of strategic importance to your organization, increase its weighting.
3. The worksheet will multiply the rating by its weighted value to derive a total value.
4. Higher scores imply greater competitive advantage through differentiation.
5. If the same criteria are used and values are consistently weighted, results should be comparable across services and products.
6. Feel free to add, delete or modify these criteria according to your needs.

Product and Service differentiation Worksheet:
(download file-  pdf  |  word/97  |  rtf   )