Mike Tyson v Simon Dudley. Who wins?

For a while now I’ve been thinking of how to give a real world illustration of the work we do at Excession Events. So I've decided to fight Mike Tyson.

Here’s an example. Me v Mike Tyson.

As you can see from the stats above, I have him on height and weight, and I have absolutely zero sports  injuries, from a long career of sitting quietly (well not actually quietly, but you get the idea).

Now who wins?

Before you get all, oh don’t be stupid, he’d punch you to death in 5 seconds flat, I need to revel one other rather pertinent fact.

I get to choose the rules, because I’ve spent my time defining what success looks like to the market. After all I'm a good salesperson, and I know that helping the client understand the problem and helping them understand what success looks like is far far more important than knowing a bunch of specs that you need a degree in the topic to understand.

As a result we’re not going to be boxing (see above for why). We’re going to be playing chess.

Mike Tyson is actually better than it would first seem likely, having taken up the game while in prison (gulp). But I think I can take him, and certainly my chances are rather higher than if we got in the ring.

So the moral of the story? Fight on ground you can win on. Don’t play the other guy's game. Because you can never win any game where someone else is setting the rules.

Here’s a couple of examples in the real world:

• You’re the big company having a small competitor running rings around you in execution?

Flip the script. Help clients understand that both solutions are more than good enough, but that you have the financial resources and history to ensure the purchasing department doesn’t have a conniption.

• You’re a small player, competing against the big guy?

Talk about personal service, how the client is more than just another customer. After all you don’t have customers, you have partners.

• Product getting a little long in the tooth?

Emphasis, stability, longevity, safety. Sure you don't have all the latest features, but do users even want those things? A product, that just works day in day out is the right answer.

Know thyself

Now to be clear NONE of this works if you don’t have a clear eyed understanding of your competitor and your own business.

At Excession Events we help companies understand their competitors, themselves, and then help them create the narrative that can set the rules of success.

Because there are plenty of things I can beat Iron Mike at, it's just not boxing.

About the Author

Simon Dudley is a chump. A man who believes in paying taxes, waiting his turn, the rule of law, being a decent human being. He writes a lot about strategy, technology, society, education, business, Excession Events and science.

#CompetitiveIntelligence #BusinessStrategy #MarketPositioning #SalesEnablement #LeadershipInsights #ExcessionEvents #GoToMarket #StrategicThinking #DisruptionStrategy #GrowthMindset #Logitech #HP #Owllabs #Barco #GoogleBeam #VQ #Cisco #Pexip #ChessNotBoxing