You know those ads that say “there’s no competition” for their product or service? It’s meant to sound like a bold, confident claim, but, honestly, it sounds a bit silly.
Because guess what? There is competition.
Potential clients do have options, they often know they have options, and you won’t get very far pretending that they don’t.
You get a lot farther by understanding your competition, making yourself more visible, niching down, and ultimately leveling up.
In other words, eliminating the competition is less about ignoring or sabotaging them and more about giving yourself a little glow-up.
After all, why waste your time throwing shade when you can simply outshine them?
Understanding The Competition
So who are you trying to outshine? Who are you competing against?
There are a few categories that all of your competition falls into. To illustrate, let’s use the example of the O.G. entrepreneurial venture – the humble lemonade stand.
Sweet! (And also, sour?)
Direct Competition
Lemonade stand “A” sells fresh-squeezed lemonade, stand “B” sells lemonade bought from the store, and stand “C” sells lemonade made from powder.
They might all be at different price points and different levels of quality, but they all sell basically the same thing, are marketing toward the same group of people, and are in direct competition with one another.
Indirect Competition
On the same street, right alongside the lemonade stands, is an iced tea stand.
This iced tea stand is absolutely in competition with the lemonade stands, though the competition is indirect. If a potential customer wants lemonade, they have three places to choose from to get it, and this isn’t one of ‘em.
If a potential customer is simply looking for a cold drink on a hot day, now the iced tea stand is part of the competition.
Other
There are loads of other things competing for your potential customer’s attention. Maybe the customer has lemons, ice, water, and sugar at home and can just “get someone in-house” to make it.
(Sound familiar? Yeah, it’s def. a common sales objection. Check out 3 more!)
Understanding these three main sources of competition empowers you to change the conversation.
For example, if you’re told that you’re too expensive and that there’s cheaper lemonade out there, you already know what the other stands are selling.
Now you know how you’re different and how you can justify your higher prices.
Think: “These are organic lemons,” or “Our lemonade is lovingly homemade.”
Making Yourself Known
Your glow-up starts with knowing the competition. But you can be a big bright light and still be too far away to outshine a closer light source.
So what’s the next step? Making yourself known.
