Why Market Leadership is a Process, Not a Goal
ByWhat a delight to log onto my blog this morning and read the comments from Oliver and Jon. It’s such a boost to know that people are reading, and that what I’m writing strikes a chord. Thank you to both of them. And thanks to Herb who’s comments on an earlier post – want to versus how to – which touched on market leadership, gave me much food for thought.
There seems to be a bit of synchronicity going on here. On Sunday evening I watched Julie and Julia for the first time and, blow me, if Ed doesn’t recommend it in his webinars on Market Leadership yesterday. (See Module 4, Day 1 of The Challenge).
One of the things Ed mentions that puts people off becoming a market leader, is that they think they will get negative responses to their stuff as well as positive. He doesn’t disagree.
A lot of people choose the web because they feel they can be anonymous, he says. But the problem with this is that if someone else comes into your market, who has a presence and a following, your business will be “blown out of the water”.
Does that bother me? Nope. Because this isn’t about a business.
But hang on. Ed makes it clear that part of Market Leadership is doing something for no reward so isn’t “the business being blown out of the water” a bit of a contradiction? But, I digress . . .
Although you might not think so, from reading my blog, I am one of the “wishing to stay anonymous” ones. At least that’s the part of me I identify most with.
I feel like someone who is holding back, peering through the bushes, waiting to see if it’s safe before I come out to play and yet, I’m writing this blog. I’m choosing to expose myself so to speak!
I suppose it’s just a question of degree. How much exposure can I stand? But there’s no denying there’s a part of me that wants to get out there or I wouldn’t be publishing.
Yesterday, as I was writing my post, I found myself thinking, “why are you bothering to put that bit in about crying?” – “Who’s going to want to read about that?” And, in fact, I toned the story down.
But here’s the interesting bit . . .
What do these 2 comments have in common?
“thanks a lot for writing this blog post. I got a LOT out of it… It’s one of the topics I have been “failing in my head” over a lot.
My Dad runs his own business and I have seen what can happen if you postpone the inevitable. It got really really ugly.
Good luck with your outsourcing from this point forward!
Oliver”
and
“Just wanted to say that you hit the nail on the head with the part about this is what it feels like to be alive.
I couldn’t agree more…
Everyone knows the phrase about doing one thing that scares you every day, but in their uninspired comfortable existences most people wouldn’t willingly put themselves in a position where they’re tested… let alone actually step up to the plate when it came down do it.
Jon”
Answer:
They are about Oliver and Jon and their viewpoints. They’re not about me and my story and whether I cried or didn’t cry. And that’s the clincher. Because market leadership is about service. As Ed says “It’s about serving your market and putting something into it”.
So . . . service is good. I like it that other people find stuff I write helpful. BUT, I like even more the idea of doing it my own way. When I try to do what the expert’s tell me it all comes unstuck. Remember the posts I wrote on The Challenge because I thought I should . . . boring!!!!
So, market leadership, like so much else, is best viewed as a process.
It’s not about setting out to be a market leader. It’s about putting yourself out into your market and seeing what emerges. It’s about learning what works for you, personally – about finding your own way. It’s about stepping out from the bushes and risking being seen. It’s about adding what only you uniquely can add. It’s about putting YOURSELF into the market. Nobody else can do that!
Scarey? Yes, maybe.
But exciting and life enhancing? Most definitely!
Related posts:
Market leadership is surely about customers, after all it’s these guys who decide who leads and who follows.
Just saying you’re a leader will never be enough, and may be detrimental.
The fact is though, over time a good product can win out, even if those behind it seek anonymity.
Take Market Samurai, for example, the guys behind it don’t seek masses of publicity yet over the years lesser products have come and gone by the wayside. The same is true for Wordtracker which retains a healthy place in the market.
And what about the guys behind AWeber? When did you last see one of them sky-diving from a YouTube video?
Yet thousands of real marketers promote all thes products with relish simply because they do what it says on the can, and it does so with relative ease.
That’s my take on this topic anyway.
Stephen
Hi Stephen
That’s an interesting distinction. The examples you give are products. So, you’re saying that a product can be a market leader even if the humans behind it remain anonymous.
That certainly seems to be possible.
Gillian