if you’re looking for a way to differentiate your business or products and create a killer competitive advantage you may not have to look any farther than how you delivery of your products and services.

Now, delivery is a fabulously flexible term when applied to business, so I use it here to talk about physical deliver of goods as well as digital delivery or information and even delivery of consulting or plumbing services.

I’ve done a fair amount of polling of late trying to find out why people choose one company over another and I have to tell you that while good service and cool products rate high – convenience is number one every time.

People will pay a premium to get what they want the way they want. While there’s a plethora of free, often dubiously packaged, information and tools available on the web, people are snapping up web apps that package and deliver that same information in a way that works for the user. The growth of paid web apps is a sure sign that people want things that work on their device, in their workflow, and on their schedule.

I’ve published a free podcast for years. You can get it on iTunes for free with a single click. Recently, I packaged it as an iPhone app, cuz everyone’s doing it, and priced it at $2.99. You can still get the free version, but hundreds have chosen to pay for the iPhone version because they prefer that form of delivery.

Here’s my message – figure out how to deliver your product or service in a format that few people have considered. Package your products in boxes that make people notice. Deconstruction how your industry has always delivered consulting services and figure out how to install a system.

More than anything, figure out how to make everything you do easier for the ideal customer and build your entire marketing message around the way you deliver the goods. You need a core delivery strategy!

Image credit: erlyrizrjr