Through business and leadership coaching, we have worked with thousands of entrepreneurs, executives and innovators. All of them want to know how they can gain an edge over their competitors.
We can offer a variety of strategies, such as creating a flexible business map, building world-class marketing and sales systems, measuring your progress and optimizing your existing processes. But the truth is that as long as you focus on your competition, you will never get the geometric growth and advantage you want.
“If you do what everyone else does, and you do it better than everybody else, you get a tiny competitive advantage. But if you do something no one else is doing in your space and focus on offering overwhelming value, you get a gigantic advantage.”
Businesses that focus too much on their competition fall into two traps:
1) They fall in love with their own product or service rather than their ideal client.
2) They fail to find the “x-factor” that sets them apart from everyone else.
Battling for a segment of an existing market share is not sustainable. You CAN achieve an exponential advantage, but only by creating incredible value for your customers and doing something that nobody else is doing.
Fall in Love With Your Clients, Not Your Product
In our business coaching sessions, we teach clients that the number one mistake most businesses make is that they fall in love with their products or services rather than with their ideal customers.
It is understandable. Especially if you are an entrepreneur or started your business from scratch. You get attached to your product. You’ve put so much time and energy into it that it feels like your child.
But then you fall into the trap of focusing on yourself instead of listening to what your ideal client really wants. You cannot become so attached to your product that you aren’t willing to give it up or make a change to better serve your customers’ needs.
Any organization that succeeds at the highest level does so because it understands, anticipates and fulfills the deepest needs of its clients.
The goal of your business should be to create quality clients, not just sell things to customers. What’s the difference? When you view your customers as clients, you become a fiduciary—you have to do what is in the best interest of your client. You know their needs better than they do, and you work hard to consistently fulfill them.
Do more for your clients than anyone else you are competing against, and do it consistently. If you truly focus on providing exceptional value in a way that nobody else is, you will develop a raving fan base. Your clients will come back to you repeatedly, even when times are tough or finances are tight. They will recommend you to their friends. Your business will grow itself.
What Business Are You Really In?
One of the first things we ask at our seminars or when we begin business results coaching is “What business are you in?” Leaders will tell us that they are lawyers, they run a catering business, they sell cars, they are software developers or they are in marketing. They miss the mark by focusing on the process of what they do rather than the value that they create.
To figure out what business you are really in, you have to identify your ideal customer and determine what value you can add to their lives in a way that nobody else can.
What makes you unique? What do you have to offer in your space that other people can’t? What makes you passionate about your work? What success stories do you have with your business? These are the kinds of questions that will help you find your own “X-factor”—the thing that sets you apart from everyone else and brings energy to your business.
When Steve Jobs took over Apple the second time, the business was near bankruptcy and was failing to compete in a crowded market of computer companies. Over the next few years, Jobs redefined Apple’s vision by focusing on the customer. Instead of a computer company, he decided that they were in the business of connecting people with their passions in a beautiful, functional way.
This led Apple to music, iTunes and eventually phones. Apple is now one of the most successful companies in the world because it didn’t fall in love with its initial product—the computer—but focused instead on providing incredible value to its customers.
Computers now make up only 8% of Apple’s revenue. Apple found its X-factor in the intersection of art and function. It connects people to their passions through music, photos, health tracking, videos, entertainment and communications. Because of this, Apple’s opportunities for innovation are essentially unlimited.
The Ultimate Competitive Advantage
If you want to get ahead, stop looking at your competitors and focus on yourself and your business. The X-factor is that intangible value that goes beyond what you can measure and infuses your company with energy and excitement.
Focusing on your clients and the unique value you add to the marketplace will connect you with a deeper vision for your company that goes beyond making sales. Instead of pushing toward your goals, you will be pulled toward something you really care about. Your passion will set you apart from the competition and inspire loyalty internally and externally.
Ask yourself today, “What value can I bring to my customers?” and “What business am I really in?” You’ll see the power these questions have on your daily life and your company’s success.
