Embrace the Concept of The Competition

The Competition is the person or element that has a viable chance in the client's mind of winning out over you for attention, for money, for loyalty when it comes time to make a committment. Your marketing task is to brand yourself as better than The Competition. Difference (as in offering a slightly different product or service) by itself is not important enough to win a client. You must be better than The Competition in ways the client can clearly perceive and appreciate. (Here's the rub: if you do not unequivocally believe yourself to be that better choice, pull out immediately. Don't waste time or energy marketing a less-than-best service/product.)

It's important to recognize that The Competition is more varied than you may have thought. It includes: a person in the same region who offers a product or service similar to yours, indolence on the part of the client, the season (warm weather that calls the client outdoors rather than to his project), a client's overestimation of abilities (I can do it alone), a cruise or a new car, etc. I could go on and on, but I hope you get the idea. The Competition is anything the client might commit to over you and your service.

Here's an example of competition from my own life: I subscribe to NetFlix which sends me three DVDs of my choice for $17.95/month. It's great. But, between May and early September there's no way that I'll watch enough movies to warrant paying $17.95/month. I'll be outside enjoying the warmer weather, in the garden, sitting on my deck, bicycling, etc. So...the competition to NetFlix is not, as one might imagine, Blockbuster or some other movie outlet but the short warm season in Maine. What can NetFlix do to retain me as a paying client? If it can understand the nature of what is competing for my attention, it can still win a partial advantage and keep me enrolled. For instance, it could offer me a special summer $8.95/month package that allows me just one DVD at a time. I'll be satisfied with one movie at a time and I'll be satisfied with the reduced monthly fee. NetFlix wins, and I win. Otherwise I cancel my membership and I'm out on my deck watching the fireflies! --and perhaps next fall, when I think again of subscribing, I'll shop around for a Netflix competitor rather than return to them.

Now, let's apply this to the memoir biz! In my Business Development Seminar Tele-class, students do demographic and psychographic analyses of their potential client bases (the ideal, the largest in numbers, the most lucrative). This helps them analyze the clientele(s) they most want to work with. How do they attract attention, make initial sales and make repeat sales? What elements may get in the way of success (with attracting this clientele, with the memoir professional's financial success)?

For instance, many teachers identify that non-writers who have little formal education are a fertile potential market. Who is their greatest competition for this market? Certainly not the local MFA writing program, not a memoir-professional a thousand miles away who conducts on-line instruction. With this clientele, The Competition that draws the most attention is likely to be Fear of Failure or Doubt about existing skill sets. The first thing that client needs to know about your workshop is this: you provide a lot of comfort, encouragement and reassurance. It's not immediately necessary to tell that person s/he will learn fantastic dialog writing skills. S/he is not interested in skills right now. Not really. Yes, s/he wants to write her/his story, but above all s/he does not want to attempt--and fail.

Now, knowing the nature of your competition (fear of failure), you will pitch your workshop with wording like this: "Requires no prior experience" "Supportive environment in which everyone learns from each other," etc. In doing so, you are fighting The Competition with "tooth and nail" and meeting your client right where s/he is.

Another example of dealing effectively with competition: Someone once offered a lifewriting workshop in my community at half the price of mine. She was not a writer, and she had no prior track record. My branding response? I pitched my marketing to highlight where I was stronger: "learn writing from a writer" and "because I am an active writer and not just a teacher of writing..." Results? Our differences were clear and we worked with very different clienteles. (Her ineptitude may also have driven her former clients to me.) Distinguishing yourself from The Competition calls for careful analysis of who is out there syphoning off your natural clientele.

Being in business for yourself is a wonderful life experience. But it requires attitudes beyond the desire to succeed. In fact, it requires a skill set that is not innate to most of us people-persons who want to be memoir professionals. We are "intuitors" who love the big picture, not the details and "feelers" who, in many instances, place relationships before our own self-interest. Overcoming our predisposition to sabotage our business interests with an overwhelming instinct to be nice is a significant task.

Being nice is just not enough to succeed in business. Developing some business savvy can help nice people like us become willing to engage in the detail work of building businesses that work. Embracing the concept of The Competition is an important step in growing a business-building attitude that will move you toward the success you crave.

Let me know how this works for you.