Have you ever put your differentiating positioning statement on the same piece of paper as your key competitionss shoes for a moment, whom would you choose if the handful of companies you are considering all position themselves similarly?When you take this process a bit deeper and also compare your differentiating key messages, proof points and customer value statements against your competition, you will be amazed at what you find. Invariably companies leverage "key differentiators" that they believe distinguish them from everyone else. But, what weve learned is that most companies develop these seemingly differentiating messages in a vacuum without first comparing themselves to the competition. Heres an exampleWe had a client that sold financial services and positioned itself as a Girard Perregaux firm that has serviced well over 12,000 clients in the U.S. After our analysis, however, we learned that their top two Replica Emporio Armani Watches head-to-head competitors had similar messages. Here they are:Competitor 1: We have served over 75,000 multinational Chopard Watches clients across 85 countriesCompetitor 2: With offices across 18 countries, we have helped greater than 35,000 companiesWith this analysis, suddenly our clients "12,000" figure looks quite small in comparison. Based on these findings and others, we advised this company to take out the "12,000" figure in their message and come up with a more general statement Breitling Watches as the 12,000 was far from differentiating.Just like everything else good in life, effective and differentiating key messaging takes time and you owe it to yourself to do your homework before communicating tarnishing (rather than differentiating) key messages about your business to clients and prospects.