Tech Startup Tip: How to Differentiate Your Business without Doing Anything New

Any Marketing 101 class will emphasize the importance of differentiating your business. How can a tech startup execute on that tall order?

Here is how we did it.

Identify a Need

Before Centerpoint, our founders Chris Chao and Fred Dekeyser were doing management consulting with a heavy focus on telephone systems. Voice Over IP was the buzzword, but no one had the ability to deliver a great product. We know because a client needed an IP system. We did not have the best solution, so we referred them to Wayne Gosselin. That client gave us the signal that started our journey into IT.

Control Your Product

It did not take long to recognize our IP phone systems were highly reliant on the network environment. Poor networks would erode the availability of our phone services, which meant our reputation was at the mercy of the IT side of the business. That challenge led us to bring on our buddy Wayne Gosselin to initialize our IT division. Control of the network would bring us control of our product.

Over time, we grew vertically into a complete, managed IT solution. We can go end-to-end: from voice to data, providing IT security and business functionality for small and mid-sized businesses.

Differentiate Based on Need, or Experience?

If you are an enterprise, or a 1-2 person business in Atlanta, the tech market is extremely competitive. But the businesses ranging from 25-300 employees have more difficulty in finding companies who can fulfil their network and phone needs. So we cater to the middle market. We also leverage our consulting experience to differentiate our business.

Tech consulting boils down to understanding and educating the customer. We typically bring multiple options to the table so that you can make the best-fit decision. Ultimately, our deep grounding in consulting has led to a 97% complete satisfaction rate and a stable business. In an industry as volatile as tech, we consider that a big win.