Stop Trying to be the Best

As we talked about in last week's blog, the world has changed rapidly in the last fifty years. We live in a truly globalized world created by the advancement of technology and communication. We can now shop in the comfort of our home for millions of products or services from virtually anywhere in the world. Regardless of time zone or what type of currency is in our wallet.

Have a question?
Get an answer at the touch of your fingers within seconds.
Wonder where you are or how to get home?
Get turn by turn navigation instantaneously on your phone.
We can now tell our lights to turn on or our thermostats to turn down without even being in the house.

This is a remarkable time to be alive. Especially considering the majority of Americans didn't have electricity in their homes until the 1930s. Home internet access wasn't available until 1991, cell phones didn't become common until the late 1990s, and the first iPhone (our modern day smart phone) is only 12 years old.

Everything moves faster, better, or cheaper today than it did yesterday.
The world is constantly changing, and generally for the better as a consumer.

But how are we, a small business, supposed to compete with this?
Where does this leave the small family owned store on Main Street that doesn't have an online shopping cart?

Last week we discovered that not only can we compete in today's market place...we can WIN. We just have to find our slingshot. If you need a refresher on last week's topic or the word “slingshot” just came out of left field for you...I would encourage you to read last week's blog. You can find it here.

When you're finding your “slingshot,” that thing you can do better than the big box stores, it allows you to fight and win situations that seem too difficult for a small guys like us.

So, today I offer you another empowering realization:
You don't have to offer the best product or service to win.

I know this one seems incredibly counter intuitive.
So, I'll reference one of history's most successful advertisers to ease your mind.

David Ogilvy, known as the “father of advertising,” worked with the biggest accounts in Manhattan in the 1950s. The television series, Mad Men, is loosely based on advertising agencies during that time period.

Through his years of experience, Ogilvy suggested this concept – you don't need to have the best product on the market to win.

“In the past, just about every advertiser has assumed that in order to sell his goods he has to convince consumers that his product is superior to his competitor's.

This may not be necessary. It may be sufficient to convince consumers that your product is positively good. If the consumer feels certain that your product is good and feels uncertain about your competitor's, he will buy yours.” -Ogilvy on Advertising, p.19

You don't have to be the best.
You don't have to offer the best.
You just need to be the unquestionably GOOD option.

This actually makes a lot more sense when you understand how the brain processes choice. No matter how rational you think you may be, we (as humans) rarely make rational decisions. It takes a lot of energy to process multiple options, facts, and possible outcomes. Our body has to burn energy to make decisions. Our body's instinct is to make the best decision using as little fuel as possible in order to stay alive. So, the harder it is for us to determine what the best decision is, the more inclined we are to take the easiest choice or simply defer the decision (quit).

This is the reason ubiquitous products have different labels.
Imagine this scenario:

You have a real problem with soap scum building up in your shower. You are not a soap scum expert. This is simply an inconvenient issue that comes with the luxury of having a shower. It is your only day off this week and you have to tackle this issue before your out of town family arrives to visit for the weekend.

So, you walk into a store and immediately gravitate towards the aisle with a dozen different bathroom cleaners. You purchase the one that says “knocks out soap scum in minutes” underneath the name brand.

Do you think for one second this was a rational purchase?
Did you read every ingredient in each option?
Would you even know what is the best chemical formula for fighting soap scum?

Nope.

You made your purchase because it most successfully communicated a solution to your problem. In fact, the generic bottle beside it probably had the exact same ingredients. But you paid more for the brand name bottle because it best communicated the problem you were trying to solve: soap scum.

Your choice convinced you that it was the decidedly GOOD option.

Your success is based on how clearly you communicate, not “keeping up with the Joneses.”
Especially today, we are obsessed with “the best.” This isn't limited to personal consumption. Even as business owners we seem to think THE BEST is the only differentiation between products or services. We wear ourselves out trying to have the best sign, fighting to get something into our store before somebody knocks it off for less, making sure the store down the street doesn't copy our latest style, or worrying that at any moment someone else will offer the same thing at a better price.

Knowing that you don't have to have the best frees you from this rat race.
Striving for excellence in what you do is important. That should be a baseline standard for any business.
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As a business owner, you are first and foremost the #1 marketer of your business. You decide its message. Clear communication of what your customer needs and how you are a decidedly good at meeting that need is what makes you WIN.  

You can compete in an industry that creates the same thing.
This means that if you can speak more clearly and effectively to your customers, they'll choose YOUR product or service over the thousands of other choices out there. You don't have to be unique or new idea to be successful. Your message just has to clearer than the others.

Even if you are a niche business, there is always the worry about other businesses selling products that may bleed over into your niche. No problem. If you can communicate to your customers more clearly than them, then you still win.

You do not have to play dirty to win.
You do not have to convince your customers that your competitor's product is bad. Instead, you simply focus on convincing them that your product is decidedly good. You are playing a game in which the competition is an afterthought. Your sole focus is your customer's need and your ability to meet it. You then communicate that so clearly that they can't help but see that yours is an easy choice because it is positively good.

Don't worry about being perceived as the best.
Strive to be the positively good.