It’s very natural for people in business to spend a good bit of time worrying about what “the competition” is doing.
As you survey the landscape of what you’re competing against, however, I’d suggest that other companies should probably occupy no more than 25% of your time.
Because your biggest competition isn’t the competition. It’s the noise in your client or prospect’s mind. It’s the boss – the kids – the schedule – the office politics – the latest health problem – the job search – the fantasy football league – tomorrow’s big presentation – the upcoming vacation – the overloaded e-mail inbox.
Don’t believe me? Monitor what’s coursing through you brain for the next 2 minutes. See what people who are fighting for your attention are up against?
Your clients aren’t spending a massive amount of time thinking about your competitors. What IS occupying their time and attention and energy is the distracting swirl of life and business.
In short, your enemy is distracted attention. If you’re not standing out from the whirlwind of “stuff” that surrounds every client, you can be lost in the noise.
So, we all have a common competitive issue. The signal-to-noise ratio. How do we put forth such a clear signal that we stand out in the minds of our clients?
Here is how NOT to do it:
1. The Bullet Point Blast
(from a major digital agency website – how’s that for cutting through the noise?)
2. A statement from General McVague
These are just two examples of many illustrating how to fail at achieving memorable and impactful clarity. It’s just more (forgettable) noise.
On the other hand, you could stand out refreshingly, as does Hubspot with their vivid 4-word summary and their benefit-filled sub-statement:
Punchy. Appealing. Tangible. Aspirational. Memorable. It’s called getting the point across quickly.
The greatest need isn’t to add to the noise. It’s to distill to a very clear, compelling, and memorable signal. By developing micro-statements and using analogies you can gain memory space and beat your biggest competition. The noise.
Additional reading:
No Jerks (Hubspot’s employment philosophy)
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