Let the big boys break the ice.

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You're not Amazon.

People are constantly handing out advice that sounds really good for giant corporations, but completely sucks for small business.

I was recently reminded of a quote from Jeff Bezos that highlighted an exception to this rule:

Here's what he meant and how the same idea applies to your business venture:

1. The existing corporations will prove which goods and services drive demand in the market
2. When there's little competition, margins become bloated
3. If you can undercut that competition without sacrificing value—or by delivering in a way that the big companies can't—you'll soak up the profits from the margins

Before Amazon was the MegaCorp that it is now, it was simply a small startup attempting to disrupt a couple well-established markets.

Their primary competitive advantage was to leverage new technologies that made it possible to deliver goods and services faster and cheaper than the handful of companies that had a stranglehold on distribution.

They leveraged an existing market demand, then focused on their core value.

The result?

Major disruptions to our entire economy.

Now, you don't need to disrupt entire economies in order to succeed. Far from it.

But, you can absolutely disrupt small economies and feast forever.

You see, you're in the exact same situation that Bezos was back when he was building Amazon. It was a relatively small company back then, and his focus was entirely on what he could do better for customers.

Think about the service you provide to your clients.

If you hated yourself, you could try to create demand for your service from markets who either don't value it or who have never actually purchased it.

The people who need to be convinced of your service's value from scratch will provide you all the suffering you need.

And don't fool yourself.

The fact that they're not already buying your service is evidence that they do not value it for one reason or another.

And there are A LOT more of these people than people buying your services. You can spend a lifetime jumping over all the hurdles necessary to land a handful of these difficult clients.

I propose a different solution.

Focus on the one hurdle that makes the difference. In your case, it's exactly what Bezos did:

Find existing demand and exploit deficiencies.

Here's what this looks like:

1. Consider your service
2. Research every company that's being paid to provide this service (note that many services are part of larger offerings like "Marketing" or "Consulting")
3. Study their client list and note the client's company names
4. Go onto social media and find the decision-makers at these companies who manage these service-providers
5. Note their job titles
6. Create a list of people with those same job titles
7. Prioritize markets where you have direct experience
8. Study their posts and pay particular attention to the professional associations to which they belong (these associations will publish content non-stop addressing common challenges these people face)
9. Create a content category list that specifically speaks to the pain points that they're constantly facing
10. Begin interacting with these people on social media
11. Use your content and replies to position yourself as a specialist that's completely on their side: You see what they see, you hate what they hate, and you know what solves their pain—all in a way that your competition cannot
12. Make your competition's entire approach your enemy (i.e., how I declared Sandpaper Studio the "Full-Service Anti-Agency")

Do you see how quickly you can establish yourself as the clear and contrasting solution to their problems?

You've taken control of the one single frame necessary to convince these clients to pick you:

"I do a better job than they do. Give me a shot and I'll prove it."

This is precisely how you should be leveraging your content, case studies, and especially social media.

It's exactly what all the big agencies you're competing against aren't doing. Like Amazon's early competition, they're too busy riding on their bloated budgets, inefficiencies, and increasing distance from their customers' core needs.

Get started with my list above, and you'll be closer to the client than any of their smiley glad-handing account reps.

– Torrey

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