Competition?
What competition? As owner/partner of Unit Interactive I have no idea who my competitors are.
I have no idea how to compete against anyone in my industry. I have never once thought about how to outposition, outflank, or outdo any other design agency, designer, or developer. I have never thought about competing or beating or winning. I think about my clients. I think about our projects. I think about how to make this app better or how to make this interface more intuitive or interesting or useful, or how to better present some sort of content. I think about how best to help my clients to accomplish their competitive goals.
I never think about how to beat my professional peers. I enjoy my professional peers.
I do think quite a lot about how to work with other agencies on some of the really great projects that come our way. I do think how to better serve potential clients who inquire after our services when it becomes clear that they need the kinds of services at which we are not expert. I often tell clients and potential clients, “We’re not your best resource for this one component of the project, but these guys (insert other agency name here) can really rock that stuff, and we enjoy working with them.” As a result, we have many happy and satisfied clients and several wonderful relationships with awesome professionals at other agencies.
Maybe I’m missing something, but I simply don’t know how to compete against anyone in my profession. I’m pretty sure I don’t need to know.
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Comments (5)
Amen! I wish more people would see this industry as a community that feeds off of and learns from one another, versus trying to out do each other.
I tend to think of our competition as not the quality shops or the people we respect…but the hacks, the snake oil salesmen, the carpetbaggers who are separating our potential clients from their money in exchange for websites that make the Internet a crappier place to be.
I agree Jay, you do have to pay attention to your ‘compeition’ to some degree.
How would you be able to justify your fee if the client comes back to you says “This person tells me he can make me a site for $150″?
I disagree with this whole heartedly.
Competition isn’t a bad-word. I always strive to be better than my peers. It doesn’t mean I succeed, and it doesn’t mean that you can’t be professional about it.
You can say still pass off clients to better purposed agencies, however it wouldn’t stop me from reflecting on myself and my team to see what we can do better so we don’t have to pass off clients.
Without competition whether it is personal or monetary. I don’t see a purpose.
“reflecting on myself and my team to see what we can do better”
But that’s different from looking at what “the other guy” is doing and trying to figure out how to beat it, right?
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