February 3, 2005

CONFORMITY. CANCELS. CHOICE.

🚀 Audacious Move of the Week

CONFORMITY. CANCELS. CHOICE.

Conformity in business kills competitive differentiation, weakens customer loyalty and stalls business growth.
When you copy competitors and worship industry best practices, you give customers more of what they already have.

Growing your business demands a difference your chosen customers CRAVE—and a reason to choose you they can’t get anywhere else.
Conformity cancels that reason—and leaves you fighting over price.

🐑 The crowd already has enough members.

Everyone says customers have more choice than ever.

More suppliers. More products. More offers.

But look closer.

The same promises dressed in different colours.

The same processes wearing different logos.

The same “customer first” language supporting the same bloody obstacles.

Plenty of options. Precious little meaningful choice.

Conformity feels comfortable.

Follow industry practices.

Match competitors.

Do what’s normally done.

Then a customer asks:

“Why should I choose YOU?”

Better service? Great people? A commitment to excellence?

Your competitors say those things, too.

You’ve handed customers the job of figuring out your difference.

That’s YOUR job.

And when they can’t find a meaningful difference, price becomes an easy way to decide.

Before blaming customers for being price obsessed, ask yourself:

Have we earned a preference—or merely submitted a price?

🎯 Discover what your chosen customers CRAVE.

Being different just to be different is a non-starter.

A bizarre campaign or flashy feature means nothing if the people you want to serve don’t CARE.

Start with WHO you’ve chosen to serve to deliver your growth.

Then dig into what they DESIRE.

What would make them feel understood? What frustration do they desperately want removed? What experience have they stopped expecting anyone to deliver?

CRAVINGS live in emotion and feelings.

Customers might need an answer. They CRAVE the relief of someone taking ownership without making them explain the problem to five different people.

There’s something you can build a meaningful difference around.

☝️ Craft your ONLY. Deliver it.

Turn that discovery into a draft ONLY Statement™:

“We are the ONLY ones who…”

Complete it with something your chosen customers care about and your competitors can’t credibly claim.

Then execute.

Your ONLY Statement™ creates an obligation.

If you promise personal ownership, someone must own the customer’s problem through to resolution.

If approval rules prevent that, change them.

If performance measures reward passing customers along, change those, too.

Turn differentiation from a strategy into an operating principle.

Customers should experience your ONLY without having to read it.

⚡ Cancel one act of conformity this week.

Pick one moment where customers get the same experience from you as everywhere else.

Ask:

▪️ What do our chosen customers CRAVE here?

▪️ Which copied practice prevents us from delivering it?

▪️ What will we change—and who owns execution?

Make the change. Watch what happens. Listen. Tweak it on the run.

That’s how you become MORE relevant and move toward becoming The ONLY One™.

Give customers something they CARE about that they can’t get from anyone else.

Now they have a reason to choose.

🚀 Want more Audacious Moves™?

🎙️ Listen to Audacious Moves to a BILLION™ for practical, contrarian ideas for building an extraordinary business.

✍🏻 Explore more articles, ideas and proven tools at BE DiFFERENT or be dead.

Extraordinary businesses aren’t built by ordinary decisions.

They’re built one Audacious Move™ at a time.

Now go make yours.

Cheers,
Roy

• Posted 2.3.05 at 06:00 am by Roy Osing
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