On Your Competition’s Processes
April 20th, 2007
So this week I was asked by a potential client to shoot holes in a competitors process. I opened up the discussion to the team here and I got a powerful response from our Chief Inspiration Officer, Greg Cordell:
Ever take a Golf Lesson?
You really should some time. You should take a golf lesson from five different instructors. Then you should go on the internet and look up all of the different golf teaching aids. The golf swing that truly matters happens between your feet. From your back foot to your front. What you do with the club face to make contact with the ball at that moment, in that tiny space, is all that matters. Five different instructors could offer you five different ways to get the club in position. There are two plane swings. One plane swing. Natural golf. Upright swings. Weak grips. Strong grips and the list goes on… all to get your club in position to make good contact. And that contact position has to be the same for everyone, now matter how you got there.
So you see my point: there is no right or wrong way. Ultimately all that matters is that you understand what your customers expect. You know how to reach them through channels they trust. And you offer them something to believe in and invest their money and confidence. And you empower and make it easy and fun for them to share their delight. How you grip it and swing it to get there is all a matter of what is most comfortable and what you can believe in. It would be absurd to shoot holes in another process. As absurd as if I said Tiger Woods swings the club wrong just because his swing is very wrong for me.
Other posts by Spike.
Michael Morton says:
I agree with Greg’s thought. However, would you take that explanation back to the potential client? If so, did the client sign on?
April 20th, 2007 at 9:09 amSpike says:
Hey Michael, thanks for the comment. We’re still talking to the potential client, so I’ll post on here when anything happens!
April 20th, 2007 at 9:38 amStephen Denny says:
Spike: this is a very insightful post. Everybody’s looking for the ‘magic bullet’ when it comes to the hard, heavy lifting of re-engineering their processes. But let’s not call the exercise futile — you just boiled it down to ‘the plane between your feet’, so concentrate your competitive analysis in that space and look at the ‘pre’ part of their process in the most efficient manner possible.
Are they practicing the lost art of ‘club mojo’ and swinging it around aimlessly prior to getting between the feet? Are they chopping at it from 12 inches away?
I’m no golfer (and from what I’ve seen, most golfers aren’t golfers, either), but as an aging former tennis instructor (and current Little League combination coach/bat boy), but it sounds like a familiar problem to what I’ve faced before; clearly, as a marketer, I’ve answered this question before, too.
. How do you get the club to the point of contact so that you have the least variability, time after time? (An easily repeatable, scalable, predictable process).
. How do you concentrate your efforts on eliminating variability between the feet? (What can you instill in the client — or identify in the competition — that creates or reduces variability).
. How do you document the ‘right’ process and ensure that it will live and evolve over numerous headcount turnovers?
Sounds like a fun assignment — good luck with it!
April 23rd, 2007 at 7:04 amTransmission Content + Creative, Mark Goren, New Marketing Coach » Blog Archive » Wish I Wrote That – 6 says:
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April 27th, 2007 at 10:09 am