Eliminating the Competition

In theory, if you create a product that the competition can’t touch, you have effectively eliminated the competition. But only in theory. In reality, the competition still has as much of an effect on you as always.

It is a powerful strategy to define and separate yourself from the competition by what you offer. By doing so, anyone who understands what you offer, won’t even consider your competition. In that respect, you’ve eliminated the competition, because they can’t really even do what you can.

That whole concept though, hinges on one thing: Whether or not your prospects really understand what you offer.

Helping them understand that can be tricky. In some industries, it is simple, and obvious, and once people know, they will flock to it. But in others, it is much more difficult.

In many industries, there is a standard way of doing things. It is so ingrained in the customer, that the customer will expect you to be like all the rest. Even when you can get people to purchase, they often think you still ought to behave like the competition – because even when the standard way is inferior, it is familiar, and people often default to familiarity even when it is not what they say they really want. People are like that.

Educating them to understand how you do it, and why you do it that way, can be very difficult. One in 20 will “get” it.

Your competition may use the same words you do, to mean different things. They may persuade people that a solution ought to be “easy”, when an easy one doesn’t EVER work. They may just talk louder than you, and get noticed more, so people choose them because they could not find you.

So eliminating the competition by providing a clearly superior offering isn’t the magic pill it should be. It is, however, a great place to start.