your real competitive advantage isn't what you think

Summary

quick question. what’s the actual competitive advantage of your business? if you’re a coach or a clinician, you probably just said “my coaching” or “my hands-on therapy.” you’re probably wrong.

1. the textbook definition is real. competitive advantage is what lets you produce better or cheaper than rivals. cost structure, branding, distribution, IP, customer service, quality.

2. for most better human businesses, it’s not your skill set. it’s not your programming. it’s not your courses. there are 5,000 other $25 fitness apps and customers can’t tell which one programs better. that’s not what makes them stay.

3. it’s the people. the customer service. the relationships. how your team treats someone walking through the door. how they feel when they leave. that’s the moat for small businesses.

4. find yours by asking your team. I asked every employee at PT Biz and Garage Gym Athlete what they thought our competitive advantage was. some answers I expected. one I didn’t, the balance angle, that I tell people to build a business and not destroy the rest of their life in the process. I hadn’t leaned into that. I do now.

5. then put it everywhere. into the team culture so they reinforce it. into the marketing so prospects feel it. into the weekly newsletter so customers remember. don’t just find it, use it. try harder.

Transcript

the definition

The most impactful business is the business that genuinely improves another human, a better human business. And to grow a business like this, you have to continually improve yourself. This podcast is a documentation of that thesis, scaling businesses and also personal growth. My goal is for you to shortcut this journey.

So if you’re ready to try hard, subscribe. If you like what you’re hearing, please share and enjoy. Quick question for you. What is the competitive advantage of your business? Really like what, what sets you apart? What makes you different? Why would anyone pick your business over any other business?

This is the better human business podcast. I’m Jerred Moon. And let’s talk about competitive, competitive advantage for a minute. So I have the definition of competitive advantage here and I’ll read the whole thing. So competitive advantage refers to factors that allow a company to produce goods or services better or more cheaply than its rivals.

why most get this wrong

These factors allow the productive entity to generate more sales or superior margins compared to its market rivals. Competitive advantages are attributed to a variety of factors including cost structure, branding, the quality of product offerings, the distribution network, intellectual property and customer service.

So knowing all that, I’ll ask you again, what is your competitive advantage? I’ve talked to a lot of entrepreneurs about this and I’m not going to lie, most of them get it wrong because most of the people I’m talking to are running a better human business. So they’re a coach, they’re a clinician, something along those lines.

And when you ask a coach or clinician what their competitive advantage is, they typically go to their service. If you’re a coach, you think you’re the best coach, right? It’s your coaching style, the way you program workouts. So if you’re a clinician, it’s your hands-on therapy, it’s whatever that you do, right?

what it actually is

That’s the competitive advantage, that’s why I’m the best. And I hate to break it to you but you’re probably wrong, that’s probably not your competitive advantage. Now it very well could be, but if people aren’t flying in from all over the country to see you for a specific thing, it’s probably not really your competitive advantage.

There are practitioners out there like that, like a brain surgeon, there’s a brain surgeon in Dallas, people are flying in from all over the world to come see this brain surgeon because he’s actually amazing at what he does. That’s competitive advantage in the skill set. But is it your skill set that’s actually your competitive advantage?

It absolutely can be, but is it right now? Are you 100% sure that’s the thing? That’s where most people are getting it wrong from what I’m seeing. And even in my businesses, so I have PT Biz and Garage Gym Athlete, for example, is it truly the programming at Garage Gym Athlete? I like to think it is, but is that really the competitive advantage?

how to find yours

I don’t think so. And PT Biz, is it our coursework, is it our materials, is it the videos people go through, is it all of the marketing campaigns we can give somebody, those kind of things? I wish it was, but it’s probably not. So competitive advantage is really what makes your business super unique to you.

And so that could be you as a person, it could be your staff, it could be, even set it in the definition, it could be your customer service, it could be how you treat people, it could be the relationships that you build with people. So this is like a layer deeper than most people think because when people think of competitive advantage, they do think it’s just their product or service, but in all reality, let’s get real, if I look at Garage Gym Athlete, there’s 5,000 different $25 a month fitness memberships, and to someone who doesn’t know jack about programming and they just want to get fit, they don’t know all the ins and outs of programming, they’re just like, is this one better than the other one?

I don’t know, I’ll try it, right? They don’t see that as the competitive advantage, it’s not why people are picking us over somebody else. Same with PT Biz, it’s not because we have this awesome knowledge base and coursework. Even those things are helpful, it’s not like they’re irrelevant, it’s not like your service as a practitioner or a clinician or coach, it’s not that your services are not good, it’s part of what you offer, it’s part of what makes you awesome, but is it your true competitive advantage in your community, in the marketplace?

how to use it

And it’s not really. What it comes down to, oftentimes, it’s gonna be the people, the people on your team, how you treat other human beings, and things like that. And that’s like a big letdown, right? Because competitive advantage on a large scale in big companies can be that they have a direct line with this Chinese manufacturing company so they can get the widget for five cents or a dollar five cents cheaper than you can, so they’re just gonna beat you out on price all day and you can’t build that relationship.

That’s a large scale competitive advantage. Small scale competitive advantage for better human businesses is just gonna be relationships in the community, how people are treated, how people feel when they arrive, when they leave, those kind of things. Those are our true levers that we can pull in having a competitive advantage.

Because people could go anywhere to see a physical therapist, they could go anywhere to see a chiropractor, they could go anywhere to get fitness training, they could go anywhere to do those things. And to be honest, again, customers are not the nerds about what we love, and so they might not know a difference between physical therapist A or B. They might not really know, but they may have picked you because you’re close to their house.

That’s all that got them there, but why do they stick around? They stick around because of you. They stick around because of, and if it’s not you specifically, it’s your team, it’s the people, it’s the customer service, it’s the brand. That’s why they’re sticking around. So what I think that you should do, because I’m only giving you one reason I think that could apply to a lot of people listening to this, what your competitive advantage is, sit down and think about what your true competitive advantage is.

Why do people pick you? Why do people stick around? Why do people continue to come in with a smile on their face, or why do people want to talk to you? What are the reasons people are really engaging in your business? If you can answer all those questions, you’ll start to uncover your competitive advantage, and you’re going to realize it’s not as much about your skill set.

Like a restaurant, it might not be as much about the food. Have you ever been to a restaurant that you continue to go to in your local area where the food is okay, it’s not like this amazing experience, like food-wise, like it’s not like this great culinary experience, but people go in because it’s got good prices, the staff is really nice, they treat you well, the atmosphere, they like the atmosphere, those kind of things.

Maybe that’s why people go to the same restaurant overall. I’m sure you have that in your town. It’s not because it’s the best food, but everything else, people hang out there, it’s a cool spot, you like the atmosphere, those kind of things. So when you start thinking about all that, you start to learn what your competitive advantage is, now you can start to foster that.

You can start to build on that. Once you really realize what your competitive advantage is, you can start to build that into your company culture a little bit more. You start to talk about it more with your team internally, like, hey, this is why people are here, this is why people come back, we need to do more of this.

This is why people want to come to our business. So you start to foster that with your team, but then you can also foster it in your marketing communication to the public, people who aren’t customers. When you’re marketing your message, you can start to explain why you’re different and why people come in your own way.

Just making sure those subtle hints are in there, people understand that there’s a reason why they should come and it’s you, it’s the atmosphere, it’s the team, it’s something along those lines. You can also put it in weekly emails, if you’re sending a newsletter, you can do all these things to remind people why you’re different and why they want to keep coming back to you.

So focus on that this week, what is your competitive advantage? It’s something I did at the end of last year, and it was awesome, and I’ll tell you how I got started on this. I asked every single employee what they thought our competitive advantage was, and I thought the responses were awesome, and they were not what I would have thought right off the bat.

Some of them I could have guessed, but other ones I was like, oh wow, I didn’t expect that as much. I’ll give you an example, is in a lot of the business consulting I do, you’ve probably heard me talk about things, I’m all about balance. I want people to have an awesome business, I want you to make a lot of money, I want you to have a lot of time freedom, but I also want you to have an amazing relationship with your spouse, with your kids, with whoever.

I want you to be fit, I want you to have a healthy lifestyle, I want all of it for everyone, not just the money or whatever. I want people to be really well balanced, and I didn’t realize that people considered that one of my competitive advantages. I haven’t leaned into that as much, I haven’t thought about that as much, but there are some people who appreciate that, but there are some people who don’t.

Some people are like, I don’t care about all that crap he talks about with family and time freedom, I just want more leads, I want to make more money. There are very much people like that in the world, and there are people who appreciate my message of, hey, you can have it all, but let’s not burn anything down the process that we want to keep a hold of.

That was really eye opening for me, I thought it was awesome, and I learned that through my team. Maybe you can start with your team, maybe you can just start with a brainstorming session, but ultimately, dive in, find out what your competitive advantage is, and then don’t just stop there, oh, gee whiz, cool, I found out what it was, or here’s what I think it is.

Start to put it in your marketing messages, start to talk to your team about it, start to build upon that so your customers know, so your team knows, everybody knows what your true competitive advantage is, and it’s got to be something that no one else in the market can touch, something nobody else in your local community can do, and that’s why it might come down to very specific humans, individuals, service, atmosphere, those kind of things.

Think about that, I know it’s a lot, but if you can’t take the time to find out what your competitive advantage is, to lead your team to be a little bit better in that competitive advantage, then you just need to try harder.