I can’t believe you clicked on this. Wait yes I can. Now let’s talk about why first, then, on my honor, I’ll deliver on the promise the 6-second business strategy. Here we go.

The Internet is flooded with hollow promises of 90-day marketing programs (funnels, lead pages, list building) and one-offs, presenting themselves as “strategies” that will give you a competitive “edge” make your business more successful.

Lose pounds fast! Get 10x customers in 90 days! Lose 20lbs in as little as 30 Days! Try Our Endless Client Program Any of these lines sound similar?

It’s important to understand why you really fall for them, and even when you don’t why your curiosity gets the better of you, and you click to investigate. The deeper you go into the psyche, the more you find it comes down to two things: belief and relief.

You Want To Believe…

You want to believe that it can be that easy – the fix, that life-changing success, is just one; simple move away, one step, one click, one purchase away. You want to believe that an answer can involve anything other than diet and exercise, or doing the real work you’ve been avoiding.

You Want Relief

Deep down below all the other rationalizations, you really yearn for a break from the anxiety of the unknown, the feeling of impending doom, and you will settle for the feeling of hope of something that might work – as it relieves you from thinking about the problems in your business, the stakes, and the mountain of more than likely, necessary work to address the challenges.

We’ve all been there.

How to Navigate This Discomfort And Make Real Progress

1. Get clear about what kind of business solution you need from the marketplace – BEFORE YOU SHOP.

You will beat most of the competition by doing some thinking before you seek a solution. The market is full of scams, you don’t want to be told what you need by a typical vendor, you want to define it in a framework, or at least with some criteria.

Let me help you with that, right here, right now and once and for all. If your shopping digital marketing/growth strategy – define what you really want as clearly as you can.

Here’s an example you can steal if you get stuck:

You want a sustainable competitive advantage that will help your business grow and thrive for the next 3,5, and preferably 10 years to come.

The key word in that sentence is sustainable.

Any one-click, one-step gimmick that your competitors can discover and deploy in a click, is not sustainable, nor is it strategic.

2. Understand what a business strategy is and is not.

The big goal of having a strategy is to make a series of smart choices and to cultivate activity systems intentionally selected to differentiate yourself from the market and grow your business (more revenue,  bigger market share, lower costs, higher margins, and higher profit). These key decisions and activities reinforce each other, are difficult if not impossible for others to reverse engineer or copy, and enable your success.

An activity system requires more than a one-trick pony, or more than one activity to be strategic, let alone a system. It involves steps and connecting the dots, preferably not in plain view of your competition.

3. Beware of Strategic Convergence & Avoid the price war.

If everyone in your market, has the same strategy, has basically the same value proposition, offers similar products and services, then you’re set up to be in a price war, which is a horrible one-dimensional situation to be in. It’s not always easy to detect either.

Financial advisors, for example, get much of their strategic marketing material for free from middleman agencies, in return for a piece of the action. There are about 2-3 really good agencies that are competing to work with the financial advisors. And they copy each other as they jockey for position. These 2-3 agencies deal with tens of thousands of financial advisors, giving them all very similar strategic marketing materials. They end up adopting the same messages, same marketing approach, same stock photos, and they offer the same products. The only real difference is usually the logo on the pamphlet or name on the door.

The results of such an arrangement:

• The advisors struggle to distinguish themselves from each other, and the choice often comes down to proximity to the regular commute of the client, and of course, fees… which are usually the same. The relationship also matters a great deal, but that too is designed strategically by the same 2-3 companies and adopted down-stream.
• The advisors’ customers have very little loyalty incentive.
• It’s really teed up for a price war – which is why someone with a slick app comes in and can disrupt the entire industry offering 90% of the service for a lower price, at greater convenience.

This song and dance is playing out in other service industries too, like real estate, lending, telemedicine and more. Many will be blindsided. The smart ones see it coming and are adapting already.

As promised, here’s your 6-second business strategy:

1. Shop the market for components/solutions that will help you build a sustainable, competitive advantage.
2. Build activity systems that aren’t easily copied.
3. Avoid adopting the vanilla positioning.

If that can’t be said in 6 seconds, here it is in one move:

Stop shopping for strategic solutions that sound like Fitness Scams and you’ll instantly find yourself on the path to standing out from most of the competition. It’s not enough to have read the steps, you need to understand why they’re important and how, as simple as they sound, allow you to distinguish yourself from the competition in a lasting and sustainable way. If you read and enjoyed the article, may it help you navigate to better outcomes.