You Will Never Beat What You Imitate

#FPF – Week 40

Building off of last week’s message – You’ll never beat what you imitate…

It’s far too easy to see what others in your space are doing and emulate those actions expecting the same result.

Unfortunately, (or fortunately…) 9.9 times out of 10 that doesn’t work. Why? because you are always playing a game of “catch up”. The second you get done implementing your copycat campaign – the company you are imitating has moved on to their next big idea, leaving you to scramble once more, or risk looking like old news.

Case in point – you will never beat what you imitate.

Instead, Be a Pioneer…

Be a disruptor.

In what ways has your market “always done it”? And how can you stand those practices on their head?

Here’s five questions you can ask yourself to spark market disruption in your industry:

What would be considered “disruption” in my specific marketplace? (price changes, product changes, new products, customer experience enhancements, etc…)
What problem does the market want solved, that no one else (but me) is paying attention to?
What am I doing now in one market that would be considered “disruptive” in a new market?
What will I need to do in order to get my team on board with my proposed market disruption tactics?
What tools/metrics will be needed to effectively measure the effects of the proposed disruption?

Next, Listen…

Listen to your team, listen to how your customers react (positively or negatively) to the changes being made and also listen to chatter within your industry. Your efforts will undoubtedly spawn shifts in your competitors – needing to pivot and change their own tactics to avoid losing more of their market share to you.

The Copycat Has Become the Copied…

Once your disruptive mindset has taken root – you may find that those you were imitating before, now struggle to keep up with you… BOOM! 🙂