Brighter - Louder - Sexier

Brighter - Louder - Sexier

Survival of the fittest!
What's your competitive advantage?

This month's newsletter is all about competitive advantage. So we need to consider two things:

1. In what area do you compete? - Your niche
2. What gives you an edge? - Your competitive advantage

1. Your Niche
The first priority for your business is to know what market place you compete in and are you providing the right solution?

There are two sides to this question:
What are the problems you are great at solving for your clients?

What are the problems your clients will pay to have solved?

The intersect of these two circles defines your niche as your only viable business strategy. 

Providing a brilliant solution without a paying audience is futile.
Providing a solution where there's demand but you are neither talented or passionate at solving it is cynical and not a route to long-term business success. In time, customers will find someone more talented and caring to fill their needs.


2. Competitive Advantage - Survival of the Fittest?
This term was first applied to Darwin's natural selection and for many people meant you had to be the biggest and fiercest. But the phrase more correctly means to be best suited to your environment. Which in some cases means that being the smallest and most timid gives you best chance of survival. Think rabbits. Or brighter, louder, sexier. Think peacocks!

So for competitive advantage you need to be best suited to the needs of your clients. And to attract their attention you need to stand out. You need to be different and better than your competition. This might mean having:

• Better product
• Better service
• Best people in the industry
• Lower costs
• Greater efficiencies
• Best brand reputation 

You must be different in the right ways; based upon your niche and what is of greatest value to your customers. Your difference needs to be clearly communicated to them. However, if it can be easily copied, that difference won't last.

To truly have competitive advantage, what makes you better must be underpinned by investments in either time, money, or energy. This might be investments in knowledge, training, infrastructure, software, skills, people, brand etc. This creates a barrier your competitors would have to overcome to match you.

With a clearly identified niche, a passion and talent for solving your client's problems, and a better way of delivering the solution, that's hard to copy, you can achieve excellent competitive advantage.

"If you don't have competitive advantage, don't compete" - Jack Welch

"Ensure you have competitive advantage. Find your brighter, louder, sexier!" - Martin Riley

Sign up to our monthly newsletter!