Photo by James Schnepf
11.02.18
Dominators Don’t Imitate Competitors
Everybody knows a Harley-Davidson motorcycle is approaching long before seeing it. Their distinctive, thumping roar gives them away. Now imagine you’re hearing that high-pitched mechanical whine any other brand of bike on the road makes. It screams “motorcycle!” but doesn’t tell you who built it, does it? Because they all make the same noise. And that ain’t good.
Dominant businesses know that making the same noise as their competitors is the fastest path to the back of the pack. So they don’t do that. From now on, you won’t, either.
When the people most important to your business are talking about you? That’s your noise. And your noise is either instantly identifiable and meaningfully different than your competitors—like a dominant Harley’s—or it’s the same, non-differentiating noise your competitors are making, rendering you an also-ran.
The first step to making dominant noise is to identify, specifically, the noise your competitors are making. You’re about to uncover how your competitors position themselves. Their words – those stale, non-distinctive, overused demand killers—are what you and everyone you work with are never going to use again. Why? Using them endorses your competitors at your expense and sends a message to your market that says, “We’re no different than anyone else.” That’s a no-no.
Let’s do this the easy way (you’ll find a more detailed way of doing this in my book). Create a document titled, “Competitive Noise.” Then, on the left side of the page, add two sub-headers: Competitor, and; Obvious Positioning Words.
Put a competitor’s name in the Competitor column (duh), then open their website. Under Obvious Positioning Words, record every word they use to describe their business (like “quality,” “customer-focused,” “fastest service,” etc.). If you have any of your competitors’ go-to-market tools like brochures, sell-sheets and ads, check those too.
Do a Competitive Noise document for each of your major competitors. Then, create a document called, “Competitive Noise Summary” and list (just once) every Obvious Positioning Word being used in your marketplace. Going forward, none of these words will be used anywhere by your business. You’re done following the crowd.
Next up, we’re going to create much better language to position your business and start your journey toward dominance.
Stay tuned.