Overview

Your competitive strategy helps your business by guiding your positioning to make sure your business stands out, pushing you to iterate and outsmart the competition, helping you see where your competitors are weak so you can accentuate where you are strong, and making your competitive advantage defensible.

Too many business owners cover their eyes rather than keeping tabs on their competitors. That’s dangerous; competitors move fast and unless you open your eyes, they’ll leave you in their dust.

Define and Segment Your Competition

You want competition. Why? Having competition not only validates the market you're in but is an indicator of an established market — which is a risk-reducer from an investor's point of view. Embrace your competition. This overview covers the importance of evaluating the strengths, weaknesses and position of your competitors.

Most entrepreneurs completely forget to uncover their indirect competitors but we will make sure you know exactly how to identify these important competitors.

You are competing with so much more than just your direct competitors. We will teach you the important concept of wallet share and how to use it to your advantage.

The competitive binder is one of the best tools you can use to keep up to date on every move your competitor makes. We will walk you through a sample competitive binder. If you don’t think you have competition, we will show you that you do. You want to know how to uncover your competitors.

Do you think you have too much competition? Let us solve that problem for you. We will walk you through a great case study that shows step by step how to define and segment your competition.

Build a Compelling Competitive Matrix

A competitive positioning matrix is a required part of every business plan. This in-depth walk-through shows how to create your competitive positioning matrix, starting with how to identify your brand's strengths—such as price, expertise, convenience, completeness or breadth of offering, and level of customization. Next, you'll learn to pair your brand's strengths and express them in the context of the X/Y axis of the matrix. Also covered is how to choose the competitors you'll include and plotting them so that your business stands out. Both Christopher Elbow chocolatier and Tesla are used as case examples.

The first step in the process of building your competitive matrix is determining your strengths. We will show you how to pick the optimal strengths for your business so you show your business in the best possible light. The trick to the entire competitive matrix is to use your top two strengths over your competition. Get this right and you will have a competitive matrix that any investor will want to invest in.

Now you can select the competitors you want to use in your competitive matrix. Make sure you select a good variety of them (big and small). Finally, you will evaluate each competitor and plot them inside the matrix. Remember the key is that you are positioned up and to the right!

Create a Unique Competitive Advantage

When we show up to the present moment with all of our senses, we invite the world to fill us with joy. The pains of the past are behind us. The future has yet to unfold. But the now is full of beauty simply waiting for our attention. What makes you unstoppable in the marketplace? That's the very thing that your unique competitive advantage answers. Crafting your unique competitive advantage gives customers a reason to buy from you, informs your positioning, and drives your business strategy. This overview of unique competitive advantage also includes a look at WOW air and what makes their unique competitive advantage differentiated, unique, sustainable, and relevant in the market.

Here are some great examples of companies that you will know and their unique competitive advantages. Included is an analysis of the unique competitive advantages of brands like Nordstrom, Amazon, IKEA, Apple, and more.

Your unique competitive advantage is what sets you apart from others in the eyes of your customers. You can build a resilient unique competitive advantage by following a four step process: evaluate your strengths and passions, analyze the competitive landscape, identify the core characteristics of your unique competitive advantage, and test it for sustainability, differentiation, and defensiveness.

You must know your competitive landscape inside and out in order to come up with what makes you unique, special and different. Coming up with your actual unique competitive advantage is much easier than you think. It is also critical to your business's success. You are not done until you test your unique competitive advantage to make sure it is truly unique. You must be able to defend this with any investor.

We will also review the common mistakes that so many entrepreneurs make when coming up with their UCA. Let's make certain these do not happen to you.

Testimonials

I'm not graduate from economic bachelor and English is not my mother tongue. But this course and how Mr. Ken explained the content is really easy to understand for beginner like me. Thanks to Mr. Ken for answered all of my question with a fast and easy understandable answer! ~ Diantini S
Perfect timing and the insights till now are those that I was exactly looking for.... Excited to learn more ~ Yogen P
Such an amazing course. You'll be able to understand and create your own business plan and you'll get a lot of valuable advices ~ A Cerimagic
Lot’s of info in this course. Ken really takes you from A to Z . Just what I needed for my business to take off. Thanks ~ Hugo M
I'm new to the business world and have been looking for courses with practical guidance. This course definitely provides that and so much more ~ S Slawinski
So far so good! A lot of challenges I'm facing in my work place Ken has highlighted the root course, which I was not expecting. He is clear, very engaging and breaks down the jargon. He is straight talking, right down to business attitude. I've just completed the first chapter and he's restoring a little faith in me so quite excited to keep learning (I know, I sound like a nerd) ~ Harrie T
This course is the right match for me as I know some about business but believe in always improving. I also want to make sure I have a solid foundation for my business so I'm positioned right for the new year, and growth ~ E Jollymore