Imagine if you could get rid of your competition by simply choosing to. Here’s some good news: you officially can and should.
Somewhere down the line we learned the concept of competition. It’s embedded in sports, in classrooms, and sadly, also in intimate relationships and daily business.
When we allow the concept of competition-thinking to come into our lives, we immediately get distracted from our primary focus: to serve our growth and that of others. A business competitor becomes a second master. Someone you serve without knowing, because competition gains control over you: You talk about it, you analyze it, you react rather than act, you make it part of your presentations, of your metrics and goals and sometimes even of the conversation in your marketing (e.g. less calories per pint than brand XYZ).
Customers are good at spotting bullshit, and this is a big one: companies working to beat the competition have stopped working to serve the customer. There is no way to serve two masters- the competition AND the customer. But that’s exactly what is happening these days, and why many businesses lose their edge and identity, and then their people.
That said, I don’t propagate total ignorance about your market (provided one really knows what market they are serving). But a market is not just made up of competition. It is made up of customers, first and foremost. If we build businesses that truly serve customers through value, there is only one competitor we should be aware of, and that is: Anything that stands in the way of our clients becoming healthier, wealthier or wiser. Anything that makes it impossible for us to deliver what we promised we would be doing: helping people get better in one way or another.
Set up in a way that serves clients and not the competition, a 3 series BMW would not just be a solid alternative to a C-Class Mercedes, but the Ultimate Driving Machine.
Change your mindset and serve your clients as who you are, not as who you are in relation to someone else.
