chrisbrogan.com - Latest Comments in How to Compete

Re: How to Compete

TinyVox — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 15:25:09 -0000

This was such a powerful article that it has ambiently taught me lessons on SEO also. I'd love your thoughts about how to take on a SPECIFIC competitor - like, we think TINYVOX is a faster way of creating amazing text than Dragon, and we were thinking of just doing a comparison YouTube video, but any other tactics you've seen work in the trenches of firm on firm competition ? Thanks !!! Awesome I get to be the first one to +1 this :D

Re: How to Compete

usb flash drive — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 02:26:57 -0000

Thing people forget when they compete in some ways that you should stand out. Too many people copying your competition too much. They assume it will work for them for competitive working. What are the passion for sustainability, and a sprinkle of uniqueness is just the beginning. Also, you need the attitude that you can win

Re: How to Compete

Timberland shoes — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 19:35:41 -0000

I can' agree more.

Re: How to Compete

craig — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 10:09:40 -0000

xlnt advice here
thnx for sharing it!

www.craigbiertempfel.com

Re: How to Compete

Mohan Arun L — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 07:54:23 -0000

Craigslist never had to compete - it was a pioneer in the online classifieds area, and quickly grew to be a household name, easily recallable.

Re: How to Compete

Francis Bélime — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 09:24:43 -0000

Good points...manage competition is the key factor in business success !
To be read by all young entrepreneurs...

Re: How to Compete

Colin Bartley — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 21:27:43 -0000

Great article Chris, I can really relate to your last paragraph. I bought a new piece of sporting equipment into a competitive market, it was well made and performed better than the competitors. My competition didn't like it, I was bagged on forums, my product slammed, accused of being illegal and they even tried to have it banned by the governing sporting body. I stayed calm didn't respond to the detractors once and never criticised their products. I also gave the athletes and sporting clubs something they never had before, I offered the clubs a free service where I would brand the equipment with a potential sponsors logo and imagery to help get the clubs sponsorship to buy the new equipment. Didn't look back. I now have 90% market share.

Cheers Col

Re: How to Compete

Guest — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 18:40:57 -0000

Great article, I can really relate to your last paragraph. I bought a new piece of sporting equipment into a competitive market, it was well made and performed better than the competitors. My competition didn't like it, I was bagged on forums, my product slammed, accused of being illegal and they even tried to have it banned by the governing sporting body. I stayed calm didn't respond to the detractors once and never criticised them. I also gave the athletes something they never had before, I offered the clubs a free service where I would brand the equipment with a potential sponsors logo and imagery to help get the club sponsorship. Didn't look back.

It did also help that I managed to get a couple of the top teams at the time to use the equipment in an important event and win of course. But I never once put down my competitors. I now have 90% market share.

cheers

Col

Re: How to Compete

Jeff Ogden — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 07:55:41 -0000

Very good post, Chris. The world is filled with me-too products. No one has to do anything, so businesses must stand out in some way.

Forgive my self-promotion, but you'll find ideas in lead generation at http://findnewcustomers.net and a discussion at http://fearlesscompetitor.com

Re: How to Compete

battery chargers — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 07:01:16 -0000

Congratulations! We must say that usually when something this big occurs, it only means improvements and overall a better experience with whatever company acquires the other. We look forward to seeing what this brings!

Re: How to Compete

Collagenelife — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 22:22:17 -0000

This is quite interesting and eye opener at the same too often are focus is very limited stopping us from making progress in our own goal achievements, thanks for sharing

Re: How to Compete

Laura — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 08:22:59 -0000

Chris - you always give me something to think about. The points above are important for anyone with a service business. Thanks!

Re: How to Compete

frank barry — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 16:43:10 -0000

Was it the last resort for Wal-Mart? It seems that competing on price will always be around and needed at some level, no?

Re: How to Compete

Chris Brogan — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 09:19:38 -0000

Dude, this is an entire blog post in its own. :) I love when you break it out there. I don't always agree with every lick of your ideas, but I feel you, every single time. You're good people.

Re: How to Compete

maverickwoman — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 03:56:48 -0000

On the subject of being helpful...I loved Valeria Mantonia's post on Social Media Today titled " Being helpful is "the new black" http://www.socialmediatoday.... I am borrowing it as a theme for a talk next week at Melcrum's Strategic Communication Summit in Sydney on how being helpful inside large organisations where competitive tribes thrive is just as important in building one's influence and a groundswell over time to fulfil one's mission as a change agent. If you are helpful to people both inside and beyond your corporate boundaries, eventually you become the "go-to" person and trust and your reputation increases!

Re: How to Compete

ilyagl — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 01:58:16 -0000

Great post! I really enjoy reading your blog.
In the trading company I work for, we provide free education to the clients, like the rest of the industry. We also provide them the possibility to trade in all the stuff they cannot do in the other companies.
The big advantage is the sales people, that are picked by country, and are supposed to talk as long as they can with the customer, and convince him to get take theyir money out.
It makes "less buisness", but allows the company to grow really fast, since they are coming back, usually the next day.

Re: How to Compete

Nathan Hangen — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 00:42:31 -0000

Chris, I love the manner in which technology can connect ideas and make them happen. No longer do we have to sit back and think about how nice it would be to have "x,y, and z." We can sit down with brilliant minds and make it happen. Very exciting times.

I like solving problems people didn't know they had, but my problem there is educating them about said problem.

Brilliant post.

Re: How to Compete

JakeNieuwland — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 23:30:32 -0000

I believe Seth Godin makes this point well, "Be Remarkable". Thats is.. be someone or something that people feel compelled to make a remark about. Go to http://www.ted.com and search for seth godin, he's got a couple of great videos up on TED

Re: How to Compete

Matt Searles — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 20:10:51 -0000

err, ok, well this is how I think..

Big companies are screwed.. its like going to the coolest museum in the world where you can actually see living breathing dinosaurs..

I think the number one challenge of business today is change management... Businesses that are big.. the whole history of the study of how you manage a business.. it's based on a totally different situation then the one we are entering in now. So between that and just the nature of bigness.. from culture to how management is conceptualized.. it's just not about agility.. I mean being a little guy is like a skate boarder versus an air craft carrier in a game of.. well how well you can move on a dime.

I think even in you're best case scenarios big businesses have huge disadvantages.. the more we can conceptualize and approach markets asymmetrically.. the more we see democratization of things, shifting power relationships between customers and brand.. the less the power of a market position is going to matter.

There's a lot of things stirring in the tech waters.. that could change things dramatically.. like.. "what if open source figures out how to do user experience?" All the tools the social media kids are using are really just beta's of what will be.. etc, etc, etc, etc.

So um.. here's a few things.

#1 re conceptualize business structure: If individuals are inherently better at change management could the future of social networking have something to do with a granular organization system where we come together in new ways to collaborate on projects? So I've been looking into starting a meet up group to explore this.

#2 The contrarian advantage: How do people see the world.. how do big organizations see the world? What is difficult to quantize into there systems, that you can see, why there's an opportunity for you. To maximize the possibilities of this sorta advantage, when you think about the educational part of your career development don't identify too strongly with off the shelf carrier paths.. Innovation comes from a synthesis of disparate stuff.. what defines things as disparate is how stuff gets compartmentalized. Remember it's all miscellaneous! If you conceptualize your path in such a way that you are a synthesis of different compartments.. you will see lots and lots of stuff know one else sees.. cause everyone else is to narrowly focused.

#3 I've personally been looking at the hollywood visual effects industry. Turns out for an investment of about $15K or so beyond what I already have invested, I can do what they can do with the only expense being my labor. I could there for work on very short piece of content where I could rival what they can afford with respect to production values.

Does that matter in the DIY Youtube age? How about if micro theaters become a reality? Think more broadly about digital distribution possibilities? I recently saw a panel where Quentin Tarantino "if you kick ass there is no competition, the competition becomes a bunch of beached whales." I think he was onto something.

#4 Don't be chicken shit. People freak out about twitter "but they don't have a business model." I understand your old Boss, Chris, wasn't big on business models? Don't be afraid if you can't see the way.. be like a Jedi and don't let what your eyes see confuse you.. cultivate that inner intuition and voice and learn to rely on it. Come to trust in your ability to discover the way. Above all, make sure you are on the right / true path for you as an individual.. which more or less comes down to something a little deeper then doing what you're passionate about.. but following you Bliss to quote Joseph Campbell

Re: How to Compete

Sooj — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 17:36:52 -0000

It seems too simple to say that competing on price is a losing game. For any business that is competing against another, pricing is an important part of any sales strategy. All one has to do is consider the number of market leaders who has pushed prices downward: Wal-Mart & Amazon are two examples that come to mind. Especially in this economy, people are more price conscious than ever.

That said, the post does point to many other factors on competition. We in the U.S. live in a predominantly service economy now, and being able to listen to customers/clients and offering them what they want, anticipating what they want, and making life easier for them will be crucial to business survival.

One key thing I always do is try to understand whatever I am doing from the customer point of view. Being in an industry that is ultimately about selling in a retail environment, I spend at least a few hours each week in various retail environments watching how people shop and how retail environments are created. While distribution and the company's corporate culture are important, ultimately, the consumers are making the final purchases that determine failure or success.

Re: How to Compete

krabil57 — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 15:16:55 -0000

This is the philosophy that we at SLICE have built our business on. The relationship is the foundation of all good, win/win, profitable business. Isn't that the key premise of Trust Agents?

Re: How to Compete

Jamie Wallace — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 14:35:39 -0000

Love the image. Is that an ode to the dog-eat-dog cliche? ;)

Although I think "vision" is critical to launching a business or idea; when it comes to competing, I think that customer service and - more accurately - a great, overall customer experience is what really makes the difference between top dog and the next pooch.
I recently wrote about a powerful "asset" based on a term coined by the leader of the band for which I sing backup (you just never know where marketing insights will come from, do you?). That asset is an "assumption of competence," and it really goes far beyond actual competence to a place where your service gives your customers a sense of total confidence and comfort in your ability to deliver. You compete by making their lives so easy that they don't even have to think about the problem your product or service solves. It's a no-brainer for them to engage with you because it's just that easy and painless.

I don't know about you, but when I find a brand that offers me something I need (or want) in an annoyance-free way, I usually become a fan for life. My assumption of their competence means I don't have to waste MY time checking up, coming up with contingency plans, or putting out fires. THAT's a hands-down win over any other competitor who may try to lure me away with price, fancy features, or any other diversionary tactic.

Re: How to Compete

Maya Bisineer — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 14:29:01 -0000

I have a somewhat of a problem with this post - since I think "compete" is somewhat of a wrong word. And when we use that word, I believe it takes our focus away from what we are doing with our own companies and obsess on what others are doing.

I much rather prefer the word "differentiation", cause that means being aware of what others are doing but work on differentiating our own services by working harder to make our services/products different. That is what Zappos did. If we get caught up with competing, IMHO , we will always be playing catch up. But getting on the differentiation and innovation route lets people compete without competing.

So, in a lot of ways, I am NOT competing. I am innovating. And a number of times, when I come across people in the same space, I get more out of trying to learn from them or even working with them ....

Maybe I am being too naive :)

Re: How to Compete

Tim Jahn — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 14:24:40 -0000

I think a key part of competing is relating. If you go to two identical hot dog shops but the owner of the second one shares your Seinfeld sense of humor, chances are you'll be over there more often.

I choose Apple over Microsoft because I relate to the creativity and innovation of Apple. I don't relate to the imitating, complex nature of Microsoft.

There's many comedy troupes/clubs in Chicago (Second City, Improv Olympic, ComedySportz to name a few). People like certain ones over others because they can relate to the performers and the material more.

Re: How to Compete

isfan — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 12:05:24 -0000

Although visionary, Bronson has tended to focus on existing markets where people mostly hate the incumbents. Mobile phones, airlines, train (uk), financial services...

His companies care deeply for their customers and it has obviously worked very well. Some people think Virgin is scattered but they fail to understand that the glue is their brand and their brands says " we're cool and we care".

@isfan