Do Their Bad Way Better

Here’s a Harvard Business Review blogger that got me nodding along in empathetic acknowledgement. Umair Haque riffs about Strategy’s Golden Rule. He feels that

The single most common competitive mistake [is] striving to do slightly better what their fiercest rival already does incredibly well

The issue he raises is most acute when pitching new products.

Too often sales teams are sent out with a list of where their new toy nudges past their competition. Yet playing on someone else’s strengths is not the answer.

Instead, it’s much better to home in on where the competition fall down. Why bother competing on turf where they’re good, especially if you offer relatively only a hair’s breadth improvement?

Better still to make that standout difference disruptive. This’ll open up all sorts of possibly overlooked tools. From service to payment terms to add-ons. As he goes on to comment;

In difference lie the seeds of disruption.
In similarity, only obsolescence, and decay.