A lesson in how to use your Competition against themselves.
I have to catch a flight soon to go direct a video shoot, so let's get to it.
There are 3 massive mistakes most people make when it comes to their Competition:
- Denying they exist
- Ignoring them
- Copying them
Even if you're not making any of these, I bet you're not using your Competition as you should. More on that after I break down the three mistakes.
Denying they exist
Any time I hear "I don't really have any competition," all I hear is "I don't take my venture seriously."
Look, if Elon has competition, you have competition. Even if that competition isn't in the form of humans (it will be 99.9% of the time), you have perceptual competition that works against you.
It's impossible to own your Positioning if you don't know who you're positioning against. That's the whole point of Positioning!
If you think you don't have competition, you need to go find them now. Your Competition includes any individuals or organizations who are currently serving (or aim to serve) clients who would otherwise hire you.
Ignoring them
You may have heard messages like "Ignore your competition and focus on yourself." On the surface, it sounds good.
But, there's just one problem:
Your Ideal Clients are NOT ignoring your competition. They're currently considering whether they should spend their budgets on them.
The worst part? This never ends. Your competition is going to keep hitting up the clients you have, keep reaching out to the clients you want, and keep holding onto the clients they're underserving for as long as they can.
You're simply inviting disaster when you aren't fully aware of their claims, their benefits, and their shortcomings.
Plus, ignoring them prevents you from taking advantage of the single-greatest advantage you can claim over them. We're almost to that part.
Copying them
You would think it was obvious that copying your competition is a bad idea. Alas, this is not only common—it's what most people do.
How can you expect your Ideal Clients to choose you when you look, sound, and act like everyone else?
This is literally the OPPOSITE of what you want to do!
From my experience, there are two reasons why companies do this, including some massive corporations:
- Fear of being different (shareholders are terrified of "risk")
- Lack of confidence in what makes you better
The first probably doesn't apply to you.
The second? I find it incredibly ironic. Your competition is literally showing their cards with every bit of marketing, content, services, and activities that they promote.
They're showing you EXACTLY where the gaps are!
I guarantee you can find an angle where your strengths outweigh theirs.
Which brings me to how to use Competition correctly.
First, you need to understand that the key to your Ideal Client's attention is "different."
Not Better.
Not Cheaper.
Not Faster.
Different.
Being different means:
- They can actually notice you
- They can feed off natural human curiosity
- They can see that they might be missing something (humans hate feeling like they're left out)
Second, most of your competitors have spent a great deal of time, money, and effort coming up with their marketing and content. The higher-quality the competition, the better they understand their Ideal Client.
You know, YOUR Ideal Client!
Do you realize what this means?
Instead of throwing darts in the dark at what you *think* your Ideal Client wants, they've delivered it on a silver platter right in front of you!
They've done all the hard work to prime the market and get their message out to all those people. They've invested potentially years in raising the awareness levels of your service's value to the entire market.
What do you have to do?
- Observe what they're doing and saying
- Make sure you sufficiently cover the bases
- Study their frames
- Frame yourself against them and only them
They had to cross a dozen hurdles when they put all that time and effort into their market research.
You have to cross one.
FFS, they even post all of their clients, case studies, and testimonials online right there for you to see!
You immediately can study your Ideal Client's job title, roles, and what they value most.
And, again, all you have to do is frame yourself as different than them in a way that intrigues your Ideal Client.
Now, how to go about that?
Well, the long answer is: There's a process to getting everything right to Position yourself to be an automatic "yes" once you connect with your Ideal Client.
The short answer? By defining why your direct competition is failing them in one critical area and how you understand their needs better.
You know those love story movies where the the woman agrees to marry the aloof guy who takes her for granted? And then the charming new guy shows up and she's falling in love with him, but she feels committed to marrying the other guy, even though she knows he's not the best fit?
She felt that way, because there was only ONE guy to frame the others against.
This is exactly what your Ideal Client feels. Except they're much more likely to ditch your competition for you once they believe you're a better fit for them.
Alright, so how do you do that?
You have two options:
- Take my advice above and go study your Competition on your own to find the gaps that you can exploit
- Grab one of the 3 spots left in my Perfect Positioning program, and learn exactly how to become the "only" choice for your Ideal Clients by the end of summer
Yes, I snuck that in there. Because, you know that an email can give you a great place to start, but it's no substitute for seeing yourself as worthy of investment.
I already have a remarkable group of Founding Member students who have starting on the program's activities.
You have one last chance to join them. I'm closing the doors soon, and no one will ever get this much direct time with me for this low of a price again.
– Torrey