One Minute Blog - Your Competition is Everyone
Jesse Cole
Owner of Savannah Bananas, Creator of Banana Ball, Author of Fans First & Find Your Yellow Tux, Keynote Speaker
Recently I sat down with a business owner and he said to me, it must be easy, with the fact that you don’t have any competition.
I started to laugh. I couldn’t blame him for thinking that way, as we were in the fact the only sports team in town.
But we, like every business, aren’t just competing in our fields. Our competition is everyone.
Our competitors include Disney, Amazon, Netflix, Uber, and ChickFilA to name a few. Or we could even look locally and think of the best restaurant in our town or the most amazing retail shop. We are competing with them as well.
Any experience your potential customer has with a business is competition.
The reason is simple: because customers’ expectations are a direct result of their experiences. For instance, everyone who buys from Amazon is accustomed to free two-day shipping. Amazon has raised the competition for everyone. So if you don’t provide free two day shipping, you are failing in your customers’ minds.
If you don’t provide the customer service and speed of service that Chick-Fi-lA provides, you are failing in your customers’ minds.
If you can’t provide entertainment as fast as Netflix provides, then you are failing in your customers’ minds.
Your competition is everyone.
So how do you win with customers’ ever increasing expectations?
The first step is to realize you are not competing in your own bubble. Being the best in your industry may not be enough anymore. Your industry is going to change and may not be the same industry years from now.
The key is a relentless focus on the customer. And not just where they are now, but where they want to go. It comes down to time and convenience.
How can you provide the most enjoyable experience for your customer where they dictate how and when they utilize you?
That’s what the best companies do better than everyone else. They are setting the bar for the competition.
Put yourself in your customers shoes and think big and think different. Then you will make the competition irrelevant.