Stop trying to be better than the competition...
| And start figuring out how
you can be different to your competition.
12 January 2010
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So many business
owners or would be start-ups sit around this time of year trying to
figure out how they can be better than the competition – better
product, better service, better features, and, the real killer,
better price. Heck, some even strive to be “best” in class. What
they should be doing is figuring out how they can simply be
different than the competition.
I’m not against
lofty goals – the problem is creating a better product or service is
hard. Prospects often won’t take the time to understand the subtle
differences that make your product or service better and you might
spend all your time and energy trying to educate them on better when
all they want to know is the price. If you’ve even wondered why
prospects are choosing your competitors over your obviously superior
offering, you may have just a hint of appreciation for what I’m
saying here.
Better than the
competition is the enemy of different than the competition, and
different is where the money is! Instead of trying to be better or
exactly like, build a strategy around a simple way that your company
is different from the pack. Again, this is sometimes a place where
companies will say, “well, we are different we have a better
product, or we offer better service.” Really, and do your
competitors all suggest they offer crappy service?
We can debate
the countless intricate ways that companies can use to create a
strategy of difference, but it all pretty much boils down to:
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Better
product
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Better
process
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Better
relationships
In my opinion
focusing all of your strategic thinking, goal setting and actions on
building a better process or better relationships is the surest and
maybe simplest way to create a true competitive advantage that
someone might care about. Would you rather lean on your 5% better
product or price or on something so totally outrageous and
innovative that people can’t stop talking about it?
Creating your
own special way to treat customers, creating an experience that’s
unique, or creating a totally new and frictionless way for people to
get a result is how you stand out from the pack, it’s how you create
a difference that can’t be easily copied, and it’s how innovation
comes to small business.
Instead of
spending your precious R&D time on product features, spend it on
creating branded intellectual property, a distinct way of marketing,
or on developing people and culture inside your organization that
enables you to be seen as different.
I’ll leave you
with two powerful questions to pose to your organization to help you
get started.
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What are we
doing that our competitors are not?
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What are we
doing just like our competitors that we could change for good?
Image credit:
Laenulfean
Copywrite John Jantsch 2010
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