Building an irresistible business

People remember what's different. Not what's best.

Bonjour everyone — hope you're having a wonderful week!

I have exciting news.

I just pivoted. Strategically.

I've always loved helping people with their sabbatical reflections and journeys — and absolutely intend to continue doing that (and writing about it here).

At the same time I've always wanted my business to be about that AND other things, so for the past few weeks I've been diving back into one of my favourite topics: business strategy. 

I've been doing some incredibly cool work to help a tech entrepreneur and start-up investor set himself up to transform his business strategically in the next few months. I'm not new to this; it’s exactly the kind of work I was doing throughout my career, usually to help Executive leaders shape ambitious-yet-realistic plans to deliver the big transformations they were accountable for.

I call this strategic acceleration — and I’ll share more on that next time.

Today, I want to talk about what to do BEFORE you move into the acceleration phase. When you're not sure which direction you want to go, and you want to figure it out before you barrel full speed in the wrong direction.

In strategy lingo, this is called the 'strategy development' phase.

Strategy consultants have made it look incredibly difficult to develop a good business strategy because it makes you feel compelled to pay them lots of money to figure it out with you (best case scenario) or for you (worst case scenario). 

The truth is, it's not that complicated. But it does take proper creative and lateral thinking to decide on a strategy that will make your business irresistible.

Let’s dive a bit deeper into how you can do that.

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You have an irresistible business strategy when it's leading you to offer unique value that the market wants.

The key word here is unique. 

If you're offering similar value to the market than your competitors then customers will constantly compare you to each other. Your business won't really stick in their minds, even if you're offering the best of that kind of value.

The market remembers what's different, not what's best.

So what you want is to stand out as the ONLY option customers have to get something they want—and THAT is what will make your business irresistible.

It’s summer in London today!

Unfortunately you can't ask your customers that question and expect to get an answer that will directly inform a genius new strategy for your business. 

If it were that easy, your competitors would have done it already.

What you really need is:

• To understand the market space you're playing in;

• To be attuned to the DNA of your business; and

• A strong dose of lateral and creative thinking.

I'll touch on each of those points, building on some of the ideas from my new favourite strategy book, which I highly recommend you read if this is a topic you’re into right now: ‘No Bullsh*t Strategy’ by Alex M H Smith.

Understand the market you're playing in

Most markets are clustered, and companies find themselves fighting to deliver the same value.

You do not want to fight with them. What you want to do is take your business out of the cluster to offer value that your competitors are not currently offering.

Many well-known businesses have done that by giving up on serving specific customer segments that the main cluster was focusing on and instead deciding to serve a segment that had needs that were either dormant or largely being ignored.

Wholefoods changed the landscape of the conventional supermarket industry by becoming the first supermarket to exclusively serve organic products to health-conscious customers who were willing to pay a premium. 

Airbnb disrupted a hospitality industry that was very much dominated by hotels, by catering to customers who preferred accommodation that was more personalised and affordable.

If you're a solopreneur or a small business owner, I invite you to think of the market space that your business is playing in right now. Who are your main competitors? What value are they providing to the market through their portfolio of products and services? How clustered is the market? Are any competitors standing out from the cluster, and if so how?

Once you have a sense of how the market space is structured, it’s time to put your attention back onto your business. 

Shine a light on the way you want your business to stand out

Remember that to be memorable you need to be the ONLY one who is providing something that a sufficiently large number of customers want.

How do you do that?

Alex offers two options: you can 'weird the normal' or 'normalise the weird'.

You 'weird the normal' when you start from a familiar category and push your business out of that category so it stands out. This is what Starbucks did when they became the first and only coffee shop chain that also served as a third space.

You 'normalise the weird' when your product or service feels out of place when you position it in the category that feels like its natural home, and on the contrary feels truly innovative when you position it in an unexpected category instead. 

This is exactly what the juice shot company 5-hour Energy did as they started offering small juice shots with vitamins that you can drink in two gulps. If they'd positioned themselves in the juice category they would have been a useless addition to an already crowded market space—and by positioning themselves in the energy drinks category instead they normalised drinking juice shots to get energy faster than if you were drinking from a can. People loved it.

Ok great. But how does this apply to normal brands that aren't the big brands that everyone already knows because of their massive success?

Let me give you an example in the solopreneur world.

Michael is a certified teacher of the Alexander Technique, an awareness-based skill that helps people live with greater ease and freedom. This technique is well-known in artist and music circles and is usually taught through touch, in lessons that are held in person.

If Michael had decided to develop a traditional teaching business, he would have had to create a physical school and find local students who were interested in attending classes. This is what most Alexander Technique teachers do—and it’s hard to make a decent living out of it.

Instead, Michael managed to carve out an incredibly sweet spot for his business by both ‘weirding the normal’ and ‘normalising the weird’.

After realising that people across the globe and all walks of life were interested in the Alexander Technique, he decided to build a self-paced digital course to introduce the fundamentals of the technique to anyone who was curious about its benefits, thereby freeing himself from the obligation of opening up a physical school and working with local students exclusively.

Three years later he has more than 1,500 students, which is way more than he would have had in his lifetime if he had decided to teach in the ‘normal’ way. 

Looking back, he ‘weirded the normal’ by teaching the technique in an unfamiliar way (i.e. digitally) instead of teaching it via touch; and he also 'normalised the weird' by making what often feels like an obscure technique relevant to people who are neither artists or musicians.

It's easy to spot this in hindsight—but if you're trying to find your sweet spot right now, how on earth do you know if you should weird the normal or normalise the weird? And in what ways?

That's where the lateral and creative thinking comes in.

See if you can deliver unexpected value that your competitors aren’t delivering.

Not the kind that no-one wants of course. Instead, figure out if there's value you can offer that has always been seen as irrelevant—but is actually not. 

In his book, Alex takes the example of the home cleaning product category. Up until recently, businesses in that category had exclusively focused on making their products as effective for cleaning as possible: the ingredients included a lot of nasty (powerfully-cleaning) stuff and the packaging conveyed that effectiveness but was so ugly that cleaning products were typically hidden under sinks. 

Enter Method, who decided to use only biodegradable ingredients and make its packaging stylish. Those characteristics were completely new to the home cleaning product category. If anything is expected to be stylish it's clothes, not bathroom cleaners! Method was the only business that started offering that value to customers and it was a resounding success. 

Now think of the market space your business is playing in. 

What value are most (if not all) of your competitors focused on delivering for customers? Can you offer the value that the main market cluster is offering while delivering some unexpected value on top of that? 

And what if you took a contrarian position—and delivered less of the value that the cluster is offering and instead doubled up on an unexpected value point?

That's exactly what Nintendo did when they decided to create a console that was technically underperforming compared to Sony's Playstation and Microsoft's Xbox, but much lighter which meant it could also be handheld. The Nintendo Switch.

Whatever strategy you end up with should not be complicated.

The simpler your strategy, the more easily it will be understood by customers, and the more effective it will be.

I know, I know, it's easier said than done. 

But start with this concept of ‘unique value’ and explore not only what that might be for your business, but also whether this is something that customers truly want.

You might not be far from shaping a business that is truly irresistible.

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PS — for the founders and solopreneurs among you. 

I'm trialling a new offer where I help you find the unique value that your business is offering to the market, thereby making you irresistible to your customers. This will look and feel like a mastermind session where I (i) guide you through a simple, fun and human-centred strategy development process and (ii) act as your strategy sparring partner to help you spot opportunities, stress-test your ideas and make decisions that will shape your business.

The first few workshops are going to be pretty cheap so now's a good time to do it. If you're curious, book a 20-min discovery call with me over here.