What makes you or your business truly unique?
Why should your prospects want to buy or work with you?
Good check-in questions to ask regularly.
Because markets change and new competitors crop up every month.
A lot of businesses have a very narrow view of what differentiation is though.
They think they need to build the next Tesla, or the next Amazon in order for them to stand out.
But it can be way easier if you know this little secret…
Let me explain.
In a recent podcast interview serial entrepreneurs Naveen Jain and Peter Diamandis talk about how we can think of being unique.
And surprisingly the way they think about it is not by looking at what others are already doing and trying to do it differently…
The answer is in the questions we ask.
“What questions are you asking that are different from what anyone is asking? The questions you ask, are the problem you solve.“
For example, they make the case for figuring out how to live on Venus.
You would need to be able to grow food there first.
So, normally you would start asking how you can do that.
But what if instead you asked a more fundamental question, one that seems almost “stupid”?
“Why do we eat food”?
Well, you’d say, because we need energy and nutrition.
So then you can ask “What are the different ways we can get energy?”.
And here’s where you unlock new possibilities and ideas to stand out…
It’s the secret to strong, differentiated positioning: “Being distinctively different not for its own sake, but because you have an insight that’s gonna make you unique.” – Peter Diamandis
Being different and unique doesn’t have to be about your features, or your product, even. You can simply distance yourself from anybody else, by having a more nuanced insight and perspective into your industry.
And it starts with 2 things:
- Asking different questions
- To solve different problems
It’s a lot of what I try to do in my business and for my clients.
Need help positioning your business and creating messaging so strong, crisp and clear that your audience will wonder what you’ve been the whole time? Get in touch.
Quote and reflection of the day:
“But until a person can say deeply and honestly, ‘I am what I am today because of the choices I made yesterday,’ that person cannot say, ‘I choose otherwise.’”
– Stephen Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
Being able to choose is earned every day, in every moment. With deliberate thinking to pick a path and reflection to learn from it.
