Your Biggest Competition is Nothing

How Seth Godin re-framed my thinking on how we should position our work

Seth did it again. He’s been one of my virtual mentors for twenty years. This morning he sent a lightning bolt through my in-box. This little piece from Seth’s Blog is what I’m referring-to.

Today’s post was short. Five paragraphs. One paragraph did it all for me.

Seth said:

The biggest competitor most marketers face is “none.” Inaction always has the biggest market share of all

We worry so much about the competition, while we should be worrying more about the market we’ve chosen. So many creators innovate themselves into a specialty so niched, there’s no one else in the room.

We want competition.

We want products similar to ours, on the shelf.

If we don’t have competition it’s a flaming, red flag we’ve gone terribly wrong with our product choice. But what about Uber? Cabs existed long before Uber. But what about Facebook? Myspace was around for years before (and talking to friends on the phone, or letter-writing has been around a couple years before that). But what about YouTube? Television was invented in 1927. But what about the iPhone? There were thousands of cell phones before it. But what about…

The Segway?

Here’s a product that had no competition. It never caught-on, because they tried to make it for everyone, from Police to sight-seers. What they invented was the two-wheeled transportation equivalent of Crocs. Everyone who stands on them looks like a dork (I’ve got like five pairs, so I include myself in this category).

Competition is a gift. There’s plenty of room to be better, different, new, and specific. The company at the top doesn’t have all the answers. We don’t have to serve everyone, just enough people to keep the idea moving.

Creators need to take pause

We all love new and different. But not that different. What’s old is new again. Instead of trying so hard to be innovative for innovation’s sake, focus on transforming the customer.

Start with the tribe.

Uncover your peoples’ current situation. What do they want to escape from? Where do they want to escape to? This doesn’t have to be a destination. Escaping a bad way to water plants can be a business just as much as escaping obesity. Or chronic pain.

When we start with the product we get Segways.

When we start with the tribe we get everything.

We must choose who to serve before we can decide what to serve. A good idea isn’t enough. Everyone has ideas. Good ideas end up on empty shelves, with no competition.

The worst thing you can do to your business is make yourself a ghost.

We need to see you and understand you made your product for us. We don’t want to have to adapt to your work. We want your work to adapt to us.

Back to Seth

Inaction always has the biggest market share of all

It’s one thing to create the product. Another to tell the others. No matter how well we serve our tribe, if we don’t market our work, we’ll never sell. Don’t outsource your marketing.

You can’t let us forget you’re still here to serve us.

We won’t seek you out. We’ve got plenty to do with our own lives. It’s your job never to let us forget you’re in business. Never let us forget how much better our lives will be with your product in them.

Never let inaction become your biggest market share.

Start with your tribe and serve them. But once you’ve got your great product, never stop telling us. Even if you think we’ve had our fill. The right shelf is crowded. The right shelf has plenty of room for all of us.

We’re waiting for you.

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August Birch (AKA the Book Mechanic) is both a fiction and non-fiction author from Michigan, USA. A self-proclaimed guardian of writers and creators, August teaches indie authors how to write books that sell and how to sell more of those books once they’re written. When he’s not writing or thinking about writing August carries a pocket knife and shaves his head with a safety razor.