Good Marketing, Good Business

082: Competitors, What Competitors?

• Shannon Stone • Episode 82

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Standing out shouldn’t mean keeping wide eyes on your ‘competitors’ - in fact, it should be far from that. In order to stand out you should look much closer to home because the ways your clients and customers will choose to work with you for a lifetime are right under your nose.

By listening [and taking notes], you’ll learn:

  • How to see your competitors as legitimate allies
  • The competitive edge you create when you focus on your customers, not competitors
  • How the inside of your business will demonstrate what keeps your clients around for longer

Enjoy!

Resources:


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Shannon Stone:

H ey, welcome to the podcast. Super excited for this episode.

Shannon Stone:

I am talking about competition and your competitors and everything that surrounds that in this episode. I am very excited for it because this is one of the principles that I have in business my approach to competitors and the way that I teach people, train people and talk to my clients around how to navigate the competitive landscape in ways that it can really benefit the growth of their business. So I'm hoping to impart some of that wisdom to you as well, and it's probably not what you think. It's not about smashing the competition. It's not about being very cutthroat. It's not about the typical things that people ask or expect when you talk about your competition or your competitors. So obviously, we all have competitors, right? You're not the only person doing what you do, and something that is not going to change is how competitive markets are. Whether they are and I put in inverted commas if, whether you're competing with someone, say, you're an accountant and there's another accountant, sure you both do the same things. But now we're also competing with technology and AI and so many other ways of your ultimately your clients and customers finding a solution to their problems the problems that you can typically solve. And also there's a lot of DIY solutions for people. Whether it's they're doing courses, reading books, there's a software that's allowed them to do it themselves. Even in that accounting space. Maybe they're not using an accountant because they become so proficient in Xero or QuickBooks or whatever have you, so they're saving on some of those fees.

Shannon Stone:

Now, this could be a sideline conversation around how to navigate a lot of that as well, but I really want to focus this purely on the competition side of things. So what I believe as a principle is that we're all in a market of one. So, yes, you can be doing somewhat the exact same thing as everyone else. But I do believe and like. This is not like your mom telling you oh, you're so unique, you're so special, you're such an individual. Like none of that. I do believe, as businesses, truly, how can we all be identical to the person next to us or the person doing the same thing, especially in service-based businesses? We have our different nuances, we have our different ways of doing things, our different like I started this conversation different principles, different beliefs, different systems and processes or niches all the different ways that we can be different, and it can be these subtleties that make the big difference and have your clients and customers choose you over someone else. So there are three main things I want to take us through today. Hopefully you find these useful. Definitely, share it with a business friend.

Shannon Stone:

If you've kind of been smashing your head against the wall, I guess, when it comes to competition or how are you going to do things differently this year, because business has definitely changed, I think this would be a really good episode to listen to. So the first main point I want to share with you is and like. Really, this is like the cherry on top. This is what it really comes down to. It's focusing on your customers, not your competitors, and when you do that, you will have so much competitive advantage. The funny thing is it's actually a catch 22. So I don't really subscribe to. I'm never checking the price of things of a competitor. I'm never doing SWOT analysis of a competitor. I'm never going down that path. Point number two and three will kind of lead to some of the reasons why. But take this point very, very seriously. If you focus on your clients and customers wholly and solely, you won't have competitors. This is how you are a market of one.

Shannon Stone:

Now we all know Domino's Pizza. They're one of the companies that use this point really, really well. So their competitors, they were all just cost cutting. How can we all create cheaper pizzas for our customers? Now Domino's took a very different approach. They looked at okay, what is it that our customers want? Sure, they want cheaper pizza, but the real problem, or one of the problems they wanted solved, is that when the pizza is delivered, it is still hot or it's also delivered on time as well. So Domino's took this problem and created a solution, a real solution, which is a really good point as well. They're not just doing it for marketing clout. They were doing it to solve real problems that their customers were experiencing. This is where they came up with their Domino's 15 minutes delivered or it's free. So their pizzas had to be delivered within that 15 minute timeframe or they promised it was free. And then, I think later on, they introduced the padded bags where it keeps the pizzas insulated and keeps them hot. So sure, you want a fast pizza delivered to you, but you also want it hot as well.

Shannon Stone:

So this point is about focusing on your customers and your clients, not your competitors. Because when you go there that's the whole reason you're in business. When you look there, you can see what are the things they need and if you say, focus on one particular customer and really specify and specialize it around them, that's going to be relevant to all the other clients and customers who are just like them as well. So point number one focus on your customers, not your competitors. Point number two is competitors as allies.

Shannon Stone:

So when I first started my business and I did, you know, marketing, freelancing I did a lot of social media, a lot of copywriting. I one of the first things I did was I picked up the phone and I called another social media marketer. That was what I felt very far ahead of me and I basically said is there any way that we can collaborate? I can help you in your business, learn from you in your business, even though, at the end of the day, we were selling the exact same services. And she said two things to me. Her first was absolutely, I need help, I'm extremely busy. And then the second thing she said to me was hold on, aren't we competitors? Now, it's never in my nature to like it's. I feel like it's just a not really a trait of mine to be like well, oh okay, you do the same thing, so I can't do that. We can't talk, we can't be friends. That's not something that I've ever really subscribed to.

Shannon Stone:

And we ended up working together and collaborating for several years and it was incredible and there was never a sense of competition. There was never a sense of me or her competing, stealing clients. I guess you could say we found a way for it to work really, really well, and I think if you are in an industry or in your service-based business and there's someone who does somewhat the same thing as you, you actually probably have a lot in common. So, instead of seeing them as enemies, see them as allies. Another quick example or quick story was one of my clients. He was radically further on seven, eight figure business. His clients were also eight figure businesses doing incredible things, and I noticed that he actually worked with a lot of identical businesses who essentially were competitors of his as well, and I thought, okay, well, it's not just me thinking that, okay, like this is my way of doing things, but I didn't know the world or other people also did it that way. But I questioned it because I was like, okay, well, it's working for me to treat my competition as allies and I'm seeing him do it really really well. I think it comes from that real abundance type of mindset where there actually is enough for everyone. And to the first point as well, if you focus on your customers, not your competitors, you will see, even if you are the social media marketer or the accountant or whoever it is that you are, there is going to be differences between your business and their business. So as long as you know that, you're aware of that, I think utilizing this competitive landscape can be done to your advantage, not something where we're like trying to steal from one another or anything like that which I think often comes up when people talk about their competition. Okay, point number two was competitors as allies. Okay, the third point that I wanted to share with you around talking about your competition and that competitive landscape is we can learn and grow so much just looking at the inside of our business.

Shannon Stone:

So when clients and customers come to you, sure they might be coming for particular services of yours, but if you look within your business ecosystem, from the point someone interacts with you, say they're downloading something from you, does that whole flow actually work? Are they receiving it? When they contact you, are they filling in a form? Are they picking up the phone? Are they emailing you? Is it easy to work? Contact you? Are they filling in a form? Are they picking up the phone? Are they emailing you? Is it easy to work with you? Is it easy to find out about your services? When they talk to you, what is that interaction like? What it is that you actually sell to them your solution, your services? Is it perfectly designed for their particular problems or whatever it is that they're wanting solved?

Shannon Stone:

So if you look within your business, there's a lot of ways and it is that catch 22, there's a lot of ways you can be competitive without looking outside of your business. Look at your customers and clients, look at your business and when you're matching the two together so they're like all in harmony, you know you're selling something that they absolutely want, need. You can articulate it really well to them. You deliver on the promises you say to them. You work really really well with them. You keep them updated on what it's like to work together or maybe it's reports, depending on your business. You know, if all of that is happening, why do we need to talk about competition? Why do we need to be cross-checking our prices and all those kind of things? So point number three is around the fact that we can learn and grow our businesses so much from the inside out. Similarly to the last episode, look within what is happening inside your business and look at your clients and customers and from there close the gaps. That is your best testing ground to make radical improvements to make you even more competitive.

Shannon Stone:

Like I said, it is that catch 22. So, to start to wrap things up, what I do find is most of my clients are of the same tune. Anyway, they treat this as a bit of a principle themselves. They're just heads down in business, very humble, they're not really like. They're never buying services from other businesses to hack it and just to reverse engineer what they're doing. They're not concerned. They generally are focused on delivering for their clients and customers. But what I will say is they do that right, but sometimes they can think that that's the wrong way to do it. It's like, oh my God, I should actually once a year check what everyone else is selling their services for. I should be figuring out are there new players coming to the market? I should. So you know, we kind of put ourselves into these mental traps. I hope I've reiterated by now. You don't actually have to do that by any type of means. Look at your business, look within it and look at your customers and clients and from there you'll see how you can really strengthen and grow your business and not even make competition even a conversation Okay.

Shannon Stone:

One little tip or insight that I will wrap this up with is when you talk to your clients, and even potential clients as well. I find you know you're having the sales conversations or inquiry calls with your potential clients. In those conversations they're so rich because you can actually get across what is happening with your competition, especially when people are deciding between working with you and working with others. So I've seen and I've had plenty of calls with potential clients where obviously I want them to do their due diligence and talk to other service providers because if they end up choosing, say, myself or my clients, I want them to be. I want that decision to be a very powerful yes, where they're not second guessing of like, oh, I should have got more quotes or I should have done more research. I want them to do that so that they come to a very informed decision.

Shannon Stone:

So when people are in this phase of deciding between you know one, two, three, a couple of service providers, they'll often tell you and I think if you come from it as choose me over them, then they're not really going to share information about what's going on with you. But come at it from the place of what are you considering? What other options are you considering, what is it that you like about that? Or what is it that you like about the solution that I'm suggesting? So you can get a lot of that feedback in the moments where it matters. So if someone says, oh, I really like how you package it up this way or I like how you know it's only a commitment for this amount of time, or, you know, yes, it is an investment, but I feel like that's what we really need to take this seriously. Whatever it is, you'll get a lot of that dialogue from your potential clients and that is such rich information for you to hold handy, to almost like equip yourself with. Okay, this is what's working. This is not what's working. This is why they went with someone else, or this is why they went with us.

Shannon Stone:

You gather that information, that market research in those moments, and then use that to your advantage. So I remember having a call many years ago with someone who wanted to hire a business consultant and they I've had many of these. I've had many, many actually conversations where they've spoken to several other potential business consultants and things, which I absolutely love, which is why I know this works. But someone said to me one of the stories is like the person they were considering versus me, versus them is like they had more of a mom in business type of vibe, like hair in a top knot, you know, like no makeup and like this is no judgment or like it's absolutely not criticism in any kind of way. It's just the way they, their vibe, the way they're portraying themselves, the way that they do business, which is actually a very needed market as well, people that can really relate to a business consultant in that kind of way. Now, that's not entirely the way that I approach business and the way that I come across, at least I don't think or the way that I approach business and the way that I come across At least I don't think more the way that I've been told, but it was just some of those little distinctions around the way that someone was showing up and the way they were coming across in business. So sometimes it's just little distinctions like that that keep you, that can separate you from in inverted commas the competition. So wanted to share that with you as well, I guess. Talk to your clients, talk to your potential clients, because that is where you're going to get a lot of incredible market research.

Shannon Stone:

Okay, action step for this episode. It is a question that I want you to answer, I want you to ponder it and I want you to think about how you can really apply this. And the question is how can I focus more on my clients and customers? So how can I, like Domino's came up with that solution of 15 minutes delivered or it's free. Think of it from that type of angle or that type of lens Like what are the problems that my clients or customers are coming up against that I can provide as a solution? You've obviously got your services all set up and ready to go, but just think about that question some more how can I focus more on my clients and customers? Because that will help you to see. Okay, maybe there's a couple of problems that sure I actually already do solve, but I just haven't really highlighted it in my marketing, for example. So maybe that's something that you can really claim and then start to sing from the rooftop. So think about that action step. How can you focus more on your clients and your customers? Okay, that is what I have for you today.

Shannon Stone:

I hope you found this episode useful. If you have any questions, always reach out, and I hope you have an amazing week and I'll talk to you very soon.

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