#22 Defensible differentiation

Today, we're diving deep into defensible differentiation and why most solopreneurs try to differentiate by being the "opposite" of their competition.

The problem?

In services, there's no real barrier stopping someone from copying your approach.

So what actually works?

There are two levers that create defensible differentiation: specificity and credibility, in that order.

The specificity piece comes back to our offer formula — get hyper-specific on the problem you solve, the person you solve it for, and the process you use to solve it. The goal is to be so specific that when someone asks a competitor, "Do you do that?" they say, "No, we don't do that."

We use Erin Balsa (Bland to Bold) and John Bonini (Content Brands) as perfect examples of how two people can solve similar problems for similar people but be completely differentiated through their process and point of view.

The credibility piece comes once you've done this thing many times, for many people. That de-risks the hiring decision in a way that tactics and techniques simply can't.

And because we always end up connecting dots, we also talk about why point of view wraps around everything else, how feature parity works differently in services versus SaaS, and why competing head-to-head with more credible players usually means you've made the wrong niche choices.

One quick note: if you find yourself constantly having to explain how you're different from competitors, you're probably not specific enough yet.

Cheers,
Nick and Erica

(00:00) Intro
(01:23) Defining differentiation
(02:24) Practical examples of differentiation
(04:55) Specificity in differentiation
(06:35) Point of view in differentiation
(08:50) Challenges in differentiation
(11:32) Feature parity and differentiation
(13:03) Category kings and market validation
(14:07) Ethics and business models
(14:42) The importance of specificity in design
(15:22) Navigating credibility in business
(16:40) Building credibility through experience
(18:55) The role of point of view in differentiation
(20:53) Case study: Erin Balsa vs. John Bonini
(23:17) The power of specificity and credibility
(24:35) Niche down: process and outcome
(26:33) The impact of brand and content

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