Who Are You Up Against

0:01 hi everybody welcome back we are going
0:05 to talk about an interesting topic today
0:08 we love this we hear this
0:12 happen
0:13 and inventor will come and say I have
0:15 the best product and there is absolutely
0:17 no competition I am gonna own the market
0:19 I’m gonna make billions of dollars and
0:22 we as you can see oh man
0:26 if there’s no competition
0:30 usually there’s a reason there’s no
0:32 competition so I always used to say if
0:35 you had a killer
0:38 tiger web so imagine you’re in there
0:40 and you’re training the dog the cats and
0:42 you have this Whip and it goes poof and
0:44 the cat jumps and does backflips that
0:46 would be an amazing product but like
0:48 who’s buying that right what were the
0:51 one the two guys that used to get in
0:52 with the whips and do that and one
0:54 unfortunately got maimed so I don’t even
0:56 know if anybody does it anymore so it
0:58 could be the reason you no competitions
1:00 because there’s no market for it there’s
1:02 no need for it could be the the reason
1:05 the other thing that could be
1:07 possible is that
1:11 I’m gonna let you talk
1:13 I think another thing is possible is
1:14 like you’re not doing rehearsal research
1:17 right you’re missing something that your
1:19 product you’re developing something but
1:20 your research is you’re looking at the
1:22 wrong place because if
1:24 you don’t have a competition our first
1:26 thing I want to ask okay why find out
1:28 why you don’t have competition is that
1:30 you’re not looking right place or your
1:32 product is not you don’t have the
1:35 product that can go to the market it’s
1:37 engineer because when people start
1:38 looking for competition I think there’s
1:39 this there’s this a little bit of a
1:41 fear right they’re like oh no if I find
1:43 a competitor out there nobody’s going to
1:45 buy my product or whatever which is not
1:47 really the case and we know that right
1:49 and so I think sometimes
1:51 we can we can look and we’ll
1:54 discount something that could that could
1:56 really be competition and be like oh
1:58 they’re not they’re not a competitor
1:59 they do something a little differently
2:00 oh yeah they’re not a competitor right
2:02 or I hear that a lot truly we’re like
2:04 wow Nobody Does this right it’s like
2:07 well maybe you should look around and
2:09 see if that’s because nobody’s gonna buy
2:11 it right because long term right yeah
2:13 maybe somebody did the market research
2:15 for you and realized
2:17 selling yeah but I think that first area
2:19 is very interesting right because we can
2:21 almost trick ourselves into like weeding
2:24 out things that you’re like yes if
2:27 someone’s going to pay for a totally
2:29 different solution than yours that
2:31 solves the same problem they are
2:32 competition right and I love
2:34 competition it’s because competition
2:37 educates the public yeah it is so much
2:39 easier to introduce a better product of
2:42 something that people already know how
2:43 to use why you need it what it’s for you
2:46 already know they have a huge market so
2:48 you already know who your type who your
2:49 target market is and then you just have
2:51 to cheat look at what they’re doing and
2:54 do it better right I love that I
2:56 encourage people to think differently
2:57 the competition all the time right so in
3:00 that case oh okay well there’s all these
3:02 people out there here’s how they’re
3:04 already doing it you can go and look I
3:06 mean just to be real Tactical for a
3:08 minute you can go and look at the
3:10 competitors and see what the feedback is
3:11 on their products or on what they’re
3:13 doing and it gives you tons of
3:15 opportunity to figure out oh here’s a
3:17 problem that I can solve in an area of
3:19 the market that’s already thousands and
3:21 thousands of people are paying for this
3:22 product or for this solution competition
3:25 is healthy I mean you need to take
3:27 advantage of competition because as you
3:29 said that they have done a lot of work
3:31 for you already all you need to do is
3:33 figure out that what is that one thing
3:36 that you can put in your product that
3:38 makes you unique and if that one thing
3:41 one important thing about that one is if
3:43 you’re adding that one thing make sure
3:45 there’s a market for that one I mean
3:47 I’ll give you a nice a really good
3:48 example that I had these are one you
3:51 know there’s a guy came to me and he
3:52 said I have this sort of nice box where
3:55 he was using something over there which
3:56 I can find it in Amazon for 25$ or
3:58 something like that right and he says
4:00 okay I’m just gonna add this and this
4:02 features and I want to add it put it for
4:03 the twenty dollars I was like you
4:06 probably going to compete with someone
4:08 who’s making Parts in China which is
4:10 very cheap you want to make something
4:12 add some new feature and you want to
4:14 sell it for the cheap why what makes
4:16 your product better and his answer was
4:18 because I always like that for myself
4:20 like no that’s not you’re not your own
4:23 customer you need to go out on the
4:25 market and find out what real customer
4:27 you’re not your own customer find out
4:29 really there is a need or not so use
4:31 that competition so people can use it
4:33 need to use it wisely what competition
4:35 is there
4:37 yeah and it’s funny because it applies
4:38 to more than just product right you can
4:41 really apply this in your business or
4:44 Services right where the more complex
4:47 something is or the more high-tech it is
4:49 it usually requires more education right
4:52 if the if it’s a complex sales you
4:54 need to educate the consumer right
4:55 exactly to educate the consumer or the
4:58 end buyer right whether it’s a long
5:00 sales cycle or whether it’s a you know
5:01 highly technical product or a new
5:03 innovation
5:04 and so your competitors at this point
5:06 and this is kind of where I’ll shift the
5:08 conversation a little bit in terms of
5:09 starting to think of how are they
5:10 helping you right and so sometimes
5:12 they’re out there educating the market
5:14 because they’re trying to solve you know
5:16 and you can ride on that a little
5:19 bit in that maybe you don’t have a huge
5:21 sales force and you know how do you
5:23 compete with these you know
5:25 industry leaders that do and we’ll
5:27 probably talk about that in another
5:28 episode but
5:29 looking at ways that they are helping
5:31 you right so you don’t need to you don’t
5:33 need to look at the competition as
5:35 bad start thinking about it how are we
5:37 helping and so
5:38 I think one of the clearest examples I
5:40 have of that is I used to work in an
5:42 industry where we kind of used to refer
5:44 to competition as competimates it’s like
5:47 putting competitor and teammate together
5:48 because there were so many times that
5:51 you actually had to partner because this
5:54 company was really good with this
5:56 technology and this company was really
5:57 good with that technology you put them
5:59 together and they make a fantastic
6:01 solution and so separate companies and
6:03 and they’re you know trying to sell the
6:05 similar things to different you know
6:06 customers at the end of the day
6:08 sometimes they would come together and
6:09 that would be the winning solution so
6:11 yeah you said that Partnerships
6:14 focus on competition I mean if we see
6:17 what’s there but also make sure you keep
6:18 track of your competition too because
6:20 your competitor could go for ahead of
6:22 you without if you’re not following them
6:24 I mean I think maybe I don’t know if the
6:26 right example but one of the thing is
6:27 like Blackberry for example right they
6:30 were in the market so long and they said
6:32 we got the corporate industry our phones
6:34 are the best no one is going to beat
6:35 without encryptions and everything and
6:37 everything and they were there they
6:39 don’t want to really go much into deep
6:41 and iPhone came in
6:43 and it took over their market like
6:45 literally took over their Market because
6:47 they just overlooked that competition
6:49 they just didn’t want to go to that
6:50 market because they were so confident
6:52 about their own product
6:54 and I think they just kind of didn’t
6:55 follow the track of their competition
6:57 and I think that’s like you need to keep
6:59 make sure that they help you but
7:01 keep eye on them too like follow them
7:04 once they’re doing it yeah and to look
7:06 at it from a different perspective for a
7:07 minute too because we do talk about this
7:09 a lot from the eyes of like the inventor
7:11 the business owner the startup owner
7:13 right but even looking at it from a
7:14 General market general public View
7:17 competition is what drives Innovation so
7:20 many times right because if everybody
7:23 own still own only owned a Blackberry
7:25 right think about how different that
7:27 would be now right but iPhone comes in
7:29 and then Android comes in and now
7:30 they’re constantly competing and so
7:32 every year the camera gets like 10 times
7:34 better and they build in a lidar and all
7:37 these incredible things that if somebody
7:39 was just sitting back because they’re
7:40 like I’m the only one so competition is
7:43 healthy right and it’s healthy
7:45 operations
7:46 competition is the mother of
7:48 infomercials right because I feel
7:52 like an infomercial turns out to be a
7:55 product that kind of takes a product
7:56 that’s already existing and doing really
7:58 well and kind of tweaks it and puts it
8:00 on fire really fast right it’s all of a
8:01 sudden it’s like everybody needs it
8:03 because it’s got this little bit of
8:04 twist I mean think about The
8:05 infomercials info products that are out
8:08 there they’re always like the you know
8:10 dry your clothes faster or get your
8:12 thing better or you know what I mean and
8:14 I so for me I like that I think it’s
8:16 Innovation and then I think the
8:18 infomercial guy got really quick at
8:20 saying I’m gonna blow you out of the
8:21 water by just doing it this way that
8:24 but I think us as consumers we love
8:26 that right we love looking to see what’s
8:28 our Best Buy and I think you’re right
8:31 I think it’s a cheat
8:33 sheet it’s funny I’ll share it’s this
8:35 story that it’s
8:38 I like to throw in things for the
8:40 folks that are not only coming up with a
8:43 product right because there’s a lot of
8:44 folks out there that they want to do a
8:46 product and yet maybe they’re in some a
8:47 different area or maybe they have a
8:49 different kind of business and they’re
8:50 listening to this a little bit more for
8:51 inspiration or just you know kind of
8:53 just the fun of it yeah the fun of it
8:55 right
8:56 and so in a service-based industry
8:59 things can be a little bit different
9:01 from products right we don’t have
9:02 anything to license but competition is
9:04 competition everywhere and so early on
9:06 one of the things that I did with my
9:08 company is I recognized another company
9:11 in the space that they were they were
9:14 really good at what they did and we were
9:15 really good at what we did and there was
9:18 some overlap and so instantly you’re
9:20 like oh no overlap they’re going to
9:21 steal customers the reality is that just
9:24 means we speak each other’s language
9:25 really well right because we have this
9:26 overlap and so what I did at that time
9:28 is I reached out to them because I
9:31 had respected the work that they did and
9:32 I said hey you know let’s find
9:34 some ways to partner up and deliver just
9:36 like epic Solution on some of these
9:38 things and they were like oh I don’t
9:40 know you know people are nervous aren’t
9:41 they very nervous because how many times
9:43 you know have somebody unfortunately
9:45 been taken advantage of in that case to
9:48 go back to some of the other topics we
9:49 always hit on and kind of finding a
9:50 win-win I provided a solution that
9:53 said okay well how about this I’ll bring
9:55 the opportunity I’ll just
9:56 carve out this part for you that you’re
9:58 really good at and then I like
10:00 okay yeah let’s do this you know and
10:03 they were like yeah if you’re gonna do
10:05 that like sure
10:06 enough years later we still partner all
10:09 the time on stuff you know a great
10:11 friendship and it’s crazy because that
10:13 person could have always been in my mind
10:15 stuck as like oh the competitor over
10:17 there that’s going to steal my customers
10:18 but instead
10:19 it’s just this awesome friendship
10:22 and partnership on you know different
10:24 solutions keep your friends close and
10:26 your enemies closer
10:27 or just make friends
10:31 no they’re just trying to do a job just
10:34 like you and when you when I started
10:36 thinking about okay well what makes that
10:38 what makes that true like why do we why
10:40 do we always think of competitors and as
10:42 in these versus taking a look at it and
10:45 what I realize is
10:46 well if I’m on a mission to solve a
10:48 problem like we always talk about like
10:50 if this is the problem I’m solving and
10:52 somebody else is also doing that
10:55 well then awesome we’re in this together
10:57 right we’re still doing the same problem
10:58 I have a product right now we’re doing
11:00 that Yeah we actually partnered actually
11:01 there’s three companies that are doing
11:03 something very similar and we have
11:05 one really unique piece and it’s really
11:07 becoming a really great conversation and
11:09 we’re finding ways to really make
11:12 a difference and it’s really fun it’s
11:14 really fun I have to agree with that I
11:16 think that’s really fun that you found a
11:17 way to partner I know there’s a
11:19 there was since we’re allowed to talk
11:22 besides products there was a
11:24 Carpet Cleaning company and
11:28 a ton of ton of competition
11:30 and I would tell you the name who
11:32 they are but I’m not going to but they
11:34 came up with a marketing after using
11:36 what their competitors have done because
11:37 we all know you’re going to clean your
11:38 carpet and do whatever but they brought
11:41 on a pretty impressive marketing guy and
11:43 what he learned was that if you had
11:47 Carpeting and you shampooed it every
11:50 year you lowered the allergy
11:53 a deficit that causes to your body
11:55 and that if you had no carpet
11:58 then you were breathing more stuff and
11:59 so they found they took all this really
12:02 kind of good
12:05 you know good knowledge about how to
12:07 stay healthier by having clean carpet
12:09 and they ended up when they created
12:11 a sales pitch so now when you call to
12:13 get your carpet clean they sold you a
12:15 month annual package and they blew
12:18 everybody out of the water because they
12:20 used a fear base and they used what
12:22 their competition was doing and they
12:24 combined the two to make something
12:26 better so they found a better way to
12:27 Market and they attribute it all to
12:30 figuring out what their competitors are
12:32 doing which is probably why I think it’s
12:34 McDonald’s buys the spot and then Burger
12:36 King just stole their demos yeah to film
12:39 right across the store right like it’s
12:42 like you know obviously somebody
12:45 and you’ll see that with other stores
12:46 right we’re kind of off topic but
12:47 similarly with competition
12:50 you will see stores that only put in
12:52 their location after a different story
12:55 because they’re already there right the
12:56 other guys they already knew he did the
12:58 market research that’s right he did all
13:00 that work and so now they’re like I’m
13:02 jumping in it’s everywhere I’m in
13:04 competition actually where do you start
13:05 talking about that I just didn’t know
13:07 there’s so many examples we can talk
13:09 about the competition it gives every
13:11 single industry every single product or
13:13 even service industry or anything you
13:16 say that like Wawa or gas station a
13:19 7-Eleven gas station or I’m also going
13:21 for Aviation Boeing and air with
13:22 competition yeah right there’s so many
13:24 beautiful planes that we have in our
13:26 service because of that competition
13:28 between them they want to be better they
13:29 want to take market share and they kind
13:31 of follow each other and it’s just
13:33 always healthy there’s so many examples
13:36 on that it really is so give us a tip so
13:39 I would say my tip is just shift your
13:41 thinking about competition right I think
13:44 we’re programmed to think of competition
13:45 as the enemy I would say write down you
13:49 know five or ten ways for your product
13:50 for your industry for your company how
13:52 competition can help you whether that be
13:54 you know in whatever way you find that
13:56 and any of the tips that we talked about
13:57 today how does how does your competition
13:59 actually help you nice what about you I
14:01 think
14:02 competition is healthy
14:04 make sure but make sure you follow your
14:06 competitor and make sure the work keep
14:08 their track of their progress oh so they
14:10 never out to you so my tip is I
14:15 always use my competition but I bring a
14:17 new product so I always want to know
14:19 what everybody’s got so I know how to
14:21 position what I got so I get excited
14:23 when I see competition so I have always
14:26 looked at as my friend so that would be
14:28 my advice as well you guys this was a
14:31 lot of fun
14:32 write in tell us more stuff we’re
14:34 getting some great feedback all
14:36 right you guys thanks see you next time