The 5 crimes we commit against our businesses without knowing

Yes.

Every executive commits crimes against their businesses without knowing.

And these crimes cause their businesses to get stuck at a certain level.

Or make them waste invaluable time and resources working on the wrong things.

Wanna know what those 5 crimes are?

Some of them will sound familiar:

1. Trying to serve everybody in the market

It’s in our nature.

We don’t like limiting our options.

So some executives are afraid to build products and services for a specific target audience.

They don’t want to “let go” potential customers.

After all, why should they target a smaller piece of the cake?

But the result of committing this crime is severe.

You lose prospects —ironically— as nobody knows who the brand is for.

Or what problem it solves the best.

And you can’t build an excellent product/service as you don’t know who you are designing for.

So a loose positioning gives you a loose brand.

And you leave growth to chance.

2. Playing the me-too game

The second crime might be the most common one.

Most executives overfocus on competitors.

Especially onto the bigger ones.

They copy them.

They try to become similar.

And they tell customers: “We have that service/product/feature too. But we are better/faster/cheaper.”

The result?

Customers don’t know how your value is different than others.

They see through the cliché words.

And when in doubt, they prefer the original instead of the mere copycats.

So you become a commodity.

Some executives don’t understand you can’t beat market leaders by imitating them.

You have to be different.

As legendary marketer Jack Trout said:

“Doing things like your bigger competitors is how to get killed in the business wars.”

3. Believing cutting price is the default way to increase sales

My favorite crime.

Wanna increase sales?

Cut the price.

Make a promotion. Black Friday. Cyber Monday. Mid-season. End of season.

Lower price = More sales.

This is it.

The result of this crime?

Customers get used to your promotions.

They never want to pay the full price.

So you try to survive with lower margins.

Your competitors cut prices.

You have to cut it further.

But you can only go as low as 0.

Is this really why you are in business?

Unless you are Walmart or Ryanair, no.

So the trick is not to increase sales by cutting the price.

It cannot be.

The real trick is having the power to increase sales while increasing the price.

The real trick is building a brand.

4. Being unaware of the strength of their business

Perpetrators of this crime love growth by expansion.

They add new products, services, or features.

They might even go into new industries and buy new businesses.

But they do all these without knowing their business’s core strength.

So new additions don’t amplify the existing business.

They distract the employees.

They confuse the customers about what the brand does.

So the business loses focus.

The result of committing this crime is a slow ride to irrelevance.

It’s a shameful crime.

It wastes all the potential the business has.

Only because these executives don’t understand less is more.

5. Lacking clarity

We talked about how we don’t like limiting our options.

In other words, making choices.

That’s why executives commit this last crime.

They don’t make a clear decision about the direction of the business.

They don’t tell employees how they are going to win.

So everybody lacks clarity.

The business becomes a headless chicken.

Everybody tries to pull it in different directions.

Everybody comes up with a new big idea every month.

But you know what happens when there is no coherent action within an army.

A guaranteed defeat.

Do you commit one or more of these crimes against your business?

Probably.

But I don’t blame you.

Growing a business is hard.

You have a lot on your plate.

You fight in the trenches.

So as that famous saying goes, you work in the business rather than working on the business.

And let me be clear.

The real problem is not committing these crimes.

Every founder or executive commits these at one stage of their careers.

You know what’s the real problem?

It’s never becoming aware of committing them.

So you keep working on the wrong things to take your business to the next level.

You hire.

You spend more.

You try a new marketing tactic.

But it never works.

Because you end up with an undifferentiated business after committing these crimes.

You fail to build a memorable brand.

And you lack a clear strategy to focus all your resources in one direction based on your strengths.

The good news and bad news

I have some good news and bad news for you.

Let’s start with the bad.

Competition is increasing in every sector.

You can feel it.

There are no barriers anymore thanks to the internet.

Companies from remote villages with few employees can go after giants unlike before.

Disruption is already here.

And AI will only amplify it.

Do you know what that means?

The result of committing these crimes will get only more severe.

The market will be full of identical brands.

Customers will have even more choices.

More and more businesses will compete for less and less mental space.

So businesses that commit these crimes won’t last long.

Survival will be harder.

And the good news?

Well, the good news also comes from the same reason.

Differentiated, distinct brands that manage to stand out will be the winners of this era.

And they will win big.

Even bigger than we’ve seen in the last decade.

The 80/20 rule will become 99/1.

The 1% of the brands will own 99% of the profits in their categories.

And the rest will fight long, unprofitable battles.

Differentiate to win… But how?

When it comes to talk, all executives know the importance of a distinct brand.

So they do all the textbook requirements.

They put a mission statement on their website.

They use “unique value proposition” templates.

They define brand colors and some words to use in their campaigns and presentations.

And they mark a checkbox in their to-do list that says “branding.”

But is this how you build a distinct brand?

Is this how you differentiate a business?

Of course not.

If it was that easy, everybody would do it.

But it’s hard.

Building a distinct brand requires you to know customers better than they know themselves.

Building a distinct brand requires you to know the ins and outs of the competition.

And building a distinct brand requires you to know your strengths so you can build a clear strategy to win in a well-defined market space.

It’s warfare to get a place in customers’ minds.

You have to have clarity.

You have to be intentional with each detail.

And let’s be honest.

Nobody tells you how to properly build a brand strategy.

Nobody guides you with a step-by-step framework to win in the market.

I know it.

Because I consulted with dozens of executives who committed those crimes.

I’ve seen the same patterns again and again.

And that’s why I decided to formulize it with a step-by-step framework.

It’s called Optimally Distinct.

Build a brand that drives business results

Optimally Distinct is a step-by-step framework to build a strategy for your brand to stand out and grow faster.

It will guide you on:

• How to position your brand in a competitive market to stand out
• How to discover (or build) your business’s unique strength
• How to validate your strategy before going all in
• How to build a memorable brand (with or without a big budget)
• How to beat dominant competitors (even in the most competitive sectors)

Each step of the framework is explained with case studies of businesses from different sectors and sizes (SAAS, agencies, tech, consumer goods, and more).

Plus you’ll also get a worksheet that makes the framework actionable for your business.

And you’ll receive everything in your inbox.

So no need to sign up to any platform that you use once and never log in again.

Who is it for

Optimally Distinct is for founders and executives.

It’s especially helpful if:

• You have a business in a competitive market and find it hard to stand out
• You believe customers don’t understand your product/service’s real value
• Your business is highly sensitive to competition on price
• Your business is stuck at a certain revenue level and you can’t find out why
• You and your employees lack clarity on the direction of the business

The executives who know how to build distinct brands face a golden future

Think about it.

What can be the additional value of having a clear strategy and building a distinct brand for your business?

$10,000 a month?

$100,000 a month?

Maybe $1,000,000 a month?

Well, then it’d be wise to invest 25 minutes to get the ideas that might help you achieve that.

And more important than money, it might save you from wasting months of effort (and resources) committing the crimes above.

A few last points to mention:

• Optimally Distinct does not require you to have a business in a specific sector. The framework can be used in SAAS, financial services, agencies, consultants, consumer goods, and any other sector with high competition.
• It does not require you to have a big marketing budget. It will help you to use your existing resources in a better way.
• It does not require too much of your time. It’s dense. So it takes only 25 minutes to go through everything. (Note: Obviously, it will require some more time to reflect on your business using the framework and plan the actions.)
• It does not require you to wait for years to get results. You can start using the framework immediately and test how it affects your results in 21 days. One step of the framework is purely focused on experimenting across channels to measure results.

Guarantee

If you go through the Optimally Distinct framework and you don’t find it useful to differentiate your business, drop an email to [email protected] in 30 days and you’ll get a full refund. No questions asked.

P.S. You can introduce your business Tax ID at the checkout if you’d like to expense the purchase.