Business Coaching and Training
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How To Really Get The Competitive Advantage Over Your Competition
One of the cool things about being a business coach and business author and speaker is that I get to use all kinds of big words and phrases that make me sound much smarter than I am.
For example, just saying the word "entrepreneur" makes me sound quite educated and continental, despite the fact that the only subject in school I failed miserably was French. After an entire school year the only thing I learned to say was, "Mon professeur est un porc de verrue, " which loosely translated means, "My teacher is a wart hog." You can see why I got "la F."
One of the hot catchphrases being bounced around a lot in business these days is "competitive advantage." All the experts tell you that you must get the competitive advantage over your competition before they get the competitive advantage over you. He who gets the competitive advantage wins the game! While that may be true, trying to come up with ways to gain the competitive advantage can drive you positively écrous (look it up, Pierre).
Can we beat them on price? Can we beat them on selection? How about the quality of our goods or the strength of our warranties? Can we one-up them on response time or the number of pepperoni we put on our pizzas or the slices of cheese we slather on our burgers?
Here's the thing most entrepreneurs don't seem to realize when it comes to gaining the competitive advantage: you can only gain the competitive advantage in those areas in which you are clearly superior to your opponent. Read that sentence again and let it soak in for a minute, I'll wait.
You can't gain the competitive advantage in an area in which you are clearly inferior to your competition, so why waste time trying? Oh sure, you can come up with handy-dandy slogans like "We're the low price leader" and "Our meats are the freshest in the land."
You can throw money at marketing your witty catchphrase until everyone on the planet has it permanently engrained in their brains (can you hear me now?). But the moment the consumer has to pay more for your goods and your meats taste like day old French bread, all the marketing in the world won't prove a lie to be the truth. Word of mouth and reality have killed many a great marketing campaign.
So you should only compete in those areas where you have a good chance of actually winning, i.e. gaining the competitive advantage. It's all about bragging rights; and if you have very little to brag about your customers will come to see you as just another bag of wind in a breezy marketplace.
Many companies compete on price, especially those in the grocery and retail industries. With profit margins as slim as Britney Spears chance of winning mother of the year, trying to go head to head with the big boys on price is a losing game. You can't compete on price with the Wal-Marts and Coscos of the world, so stop trying.
This is the point that I keep driving into my clients in my business training and coaching sessions, concentrate your efforts only in those areas where you have a better than even chance of gaining the competitive advantage. How about quality? Is your product superior in quality to all others on the market? If so, concentrate on proving it and branding yourself as the quality leader.
How about customer satisfaction? If your product has documented proof that 98% of customers are happy with their purchase while the industry norm is 75%, make customer satisfaction your competitive advantage mantra.
How about customer service? If your customers love you and keep coming back for more, then concentrate on making that your competitive advantage.
There are other ways to get a leg up on the competition: being first to market with a new product, pioneering a new technology, hiring a key executive to run the show, and yes, coming up with a catchy slogan that everybody knows and you can back up.
Bottomline: if you can't compete in a specific area, stop trying. You're fighting an uphill battle you can't win. It makes no sense to compete in a contest where you know in your heart you can't win. Concentrate on kicking the competition's derriere in those areas where you have the superiority to do so. Viva la différence!
For example, just saying the word "entrepreneur" makes me sound quite educated and continental, despite the fact that the only subject in school I failed miserably was French. After an entire school year the only thing I learned to say was, "Mon professeur est un porc de verrue, " which loosely translated means, "My teacher is a wart hog." You can see why I got "la F."
One of the hot catchphrases being bounced around a lot in business these days is "competitive advantage." All the experts tell you that you must get the competitive advantage over your competition before they get the competitive advantage over you. He who gets the competitive advantage wins the game! While that may be true, trying to come up with ways to gain the competitive advantage can drive you positively écrous (look it up, Pierre).
Can we beat them on price? Can we beat them on selection? How about the quality of our goods or the strength of our warranties? Can we one-up them on response time or the number of pepperoni we put on our pizzas or the slices of cheese we slather on our burgers?
Here's the thing most entrepreneurs don't seem to realize when it comes to gaining the competitive advantage: you can only gain the competitive advantage in those areas in which you are clearly superior to your opponent. Read that sentence again and let it soak in for a minute, I'll wait.
You can't gain the competitive advantage in an area in which you are clearly inferior to your competition, so why waste time trying? Oh sure, you can come up with handy-dandy slogans like "We're the low price leader" and "Our meats are the freshest in the land."
You can throw money at marketing your witty catchphrase until everyone on the planet has it permanently engrained in their brains (can you hear me now?). But the moment the consumer has to pay more for your goods and your meats taste like day old French bread, all the marketing in the world won't prove a lie to be the truth. Word of mouth and reality have killed many a great marketing campaign.
So you should only compete in those areas where you have a good chance of actually winning, i.e. gaining the competitive advantage. It's all about bragging rights; and if you have very little to brag about your customers will come to see you as just another bag of wind in a breezy marketplace.
Many companies compete on price, especially those in the grocery and retail industries. With profit margins as slim as Britney Spears chance of winning mother of the year, trying to go head to head with the big boys on price is a losing game. You can't compete on price with the Wal-Marts and Coscos of the world, so stop trying.
This is the point that I keep driving into my clients in my business training and coaching sessions, concentrate your efforts only in those areas where you have a better than even chance of gaining the competitive advantage. How about quality? Is your product superior in quality to all others on the market? If so, concentrate on proving it and branding yourself as the quality leader.
How about customer satisfaction? If your product has documented proof that 98% of customers are happy with their purchase while the industry norm is 75%, make customer satisfaction your competitive advantage mantra.
How about customer service? If your customers love you and keep coming back for more, then concentrate on making that your competitive advantage.
There are other ways to get a leg up on the competition: being first to market with a new product, pioneering a new technology, hiring a key executive to run the show, and yes, coming up with a catchy slogan that everybody knows and you can back up.
Bottomline: if you can't compete in a specific area, stop trying. You're fighting an uphill battle you can't win. It makes no sense to compete in a contest where you know in your heart you can't win. Concentrate on kicking the competition's derriere in those areas where you have the superiority to do so. Viva la différence!
Contents at a Glance
Overcoming Fear of Startup
Think about this famous quote by Franklin Roosevelt after Pearl Harbor: "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." I never really understood this quote until I started working with people who wanted to start their own practices, and until I started my own businesses. I have thought a lot about fear and the way it can paralyze us and I have seen this paralysis first-hand.
For example, I spent a lot of time, and many phone calls and emails, helping a grad with the startup process. He would go only so far, only to stop. He would find a practice to buy, and then he would back out of the deal because it wasn't quite right. Or he would find a location, but never actually sign a lease, convinced that this location wasn't perfect. He couldn't find a loan, but he only tried a couple of banks then gave up. After months he finally decided to stay as an associate, where he was unhappy; for all I know, he's still there.
Why does fear paralyze us?
1. Old voices. We all have voices in our heads, from times when someone (parent, friend, spouse) told us, "You can't do this," or "This is stupid. You'll fail," or "Don't risk failure." "If you fail, it will be terrible." As long as we listen to those voices, we don't move ahead.
2. Perfectionism. It's great to want to do things well, but we often are way too picky about how things must be. For example, the guy who wanted the perfect location. A friend of mine gave me some advice about writing: "My rotten published book is better than your perfect unpublished one." So I'm sending it off to be printed.
3. "Don't just do it." We figure we have to start at the beginning and work toward the end, in some kind of specific sequence. Then when we get stumped at a certain point, we figure there's no way around. Not necessarily. Sure you will have to get a loan before you can start buying equipment, but there are lots of things you can do to get started with little money, and there are lots of paths, not just one.
Timothy Ferriss, author of The 4-Hour Workweek (Crown, 2007), has some suggestions for overcoming the paralysis of fear:
1. First, define your nightmare. What is the worst thing that could happen if you fail in your new practice? Spend some time thinking about this. Create a worst case scenario. Then consider two factors: Probability and Severity. These are insurance terms, but they apply. First, what's the probability (on a scale of 0% - never happen, to 100% - guaranteed to happen) of failure? Then look at the severity - the cost - of failure. While I'm not a fan of dwelling on the negative, I do believe you need to look under the bed to convince yourself there really are no monsters under there (like Grover.)
2. Then look at the steps you could take to repair the damage. How could you get your life back on track if you fail in practice? Spend some time thinking about alternatives, like starting again elsewhere, or working for someone else. Think about what's really important, and "don't sweat the small stuff."
3. Consider the outcomes and benefits of more probable scenarios. Think about what your life would look like in a "best case" scenario. Then set yourself to thinking that this is the more probable outcome of starting your own business.
4. Prepare to succeed. Start taking baby steps to overcome your fears by working on the positive steps to success. Resolve to do one thing every day that you fear. Do one small task every day that will move you toward your start date. It might be as simple as calling the Yellow Pages and ordering an ad in the next book. Work on your business plan. Focus your energy on positive action. By the time you are done writing the business plan, I think you'll find you will see that startup success is not only possible, but you'll feel more confident about starting your practice.
Remember, as Henry Ford said, "If you think you can or you think you can't, you're right."
For example, I spent a lot of time, and many phone calls and emails, helping a grad with the startup process. He would go only so far, only to stop. He would find a practice to buy, and then he would back out of the deal because it wasn't quite right. Or he would find a location, but never actually sign a lease, convinced that this location wasn't perfect. He couldn't find a loan, but he only tried a couple of banks then gave up. After months he finally decided to stay as an associate, where he was unhappy; for all I know, he's still there.
Why does fear paralyze us?
1. Old voices. We all have voices in our heads, from times when someone (parent, friend, spouse) told us, "You can't do this," or "This is stupid. You'll fail," or "Don't risk failure." "If you fail, it will be terrible." As long as we listen to those voices, we don't move ahead.
2. Perfectionism. It's great to want to do things well, but we often are way too picky about how things must be. For example, the guy who wanted the perfect location. A friend of mine gave me some advice about writing: "My rotten published book is better than your perfect unpublished one." So I'm sending it off to be printed.
3. "Don't just do it." We figure we have to start at the beginning and work toward the end, in some kind of specific sequence. Then when we get stumped at a certain point, we figure there's no way around. Not necessarily. Sure you will have to get a loan before you can start buying equipment, but there are lots of things you can do to get started with little money, and there are lots of paths, not just one.
Timothy Ferriss, author of The 4-Hour Workweek (Crown, 2007), has some suggestions for overcoming the paralysis of fear:
1. First, define your nightmare. What is the worst thing that could happen if you fail in your new practice? Spend some time thinking about this. Create a worst case scenario. Then consider two factors: Probability and Severity. These are insurance terms, but they apply. First, what's the probability (on a scale of 0% - never happen, to 100% - guaranteed to happen) of failure? Then look at the severity - the cost - of failure. While I'm not a fan of dwelling on the negative, I do believe you need to look under the bed to convince yourself there really are no monsters under there (like Grover.)
2. Then look at the steps you could take to repair the damage. How could you get your life back on track if you fail in practice? Spend some time thinking about alternatives, like starting again elsewhere, or working for someone else. Think about what's really important, and "don't sweat the small stuff."
3. Consider the outcomes and benefits of more probable scenarios. Think about what your life would look like in a "best case" scenario. Then set yourself to thinking that this is the more probable outcome of starting your own business.
4. Prepare to succeed. Start taking baby steps to overcome your fears by working on the positive steps to success. Resolve to do one thing every day that you fear. Do one small task every day that will move you toward your start date. It might be as simple as calling the Yellow Pages and ordering an ad in the next book. Work on your business plan. Focus your energy on positive action. By the time you are done writing the business plan, I think you'll find you will see that startup success is not only possible, but you'll feel more confident about starting your practice.
Remember, as Henry Ford said, "If you think you can or you think you can't, you're right."
by thebusinesspro
Hello world. This is my bio. I can edit it later!
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