Businesses go to great lengths to protect their best secrets from competitors.
- Non-compete agreements threaten
- Proprietary information is omitted
- Business writing is full of deleted text
What if you shared those secrets?
- Would disaster occur?
- Would your competitor duplicate your success?
Maybe your secrets weren’t so secret after all.
Knowing is not doing.
Do As I Say – Not As I Do
In my corporate days I worked with an individual who felt if he kept certain aspects of his work secret, no one else could perform his job.
- Was he indispensable?
- No, he was stuck in his job
Why would you create a setting where no one else could do your job?
- Do you want to stay in the same job forever?
- Do you never want to take time off?
If you have the best business idea, why would you not share it?
Shallow Secrets
If your secrets are all that stand between you and your competitors’ success, you’re in trouble.
If duplication was the secret to success, The Stepford Wives would be the new Eve.
How often have you heard this?
I don’t want to give away my secrets
Do you believe so little in your business?
Because I have your secret recipe for a cake you have been baking for 30 years, are your customers going to leave you for me?
If they do, it’s not the loss of your secret recipe that’s the problem.
Be Brave
Stand up to the competition.
- Release that white paper that shares your secrets
- Open the door on proprietary information
- Create those case studies
- Dare others to duplicate your success
- Show customers what it means to have the whole package
If you’re really good at what you do, you already have a competitive advantage.
Believe in your business – it shows.
Do you share your best secrets?
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Amen. Of course, my business is writing and I get so many people afraid someone will steal their idea… not understanding that you and I can write on the same topic and it will turn out entirely or mostly different because we’re different people… I’m for transparency… and it’s so much easier.
I so agree, Anne. It should be our uniqueness that keeps customers coming back for more.
Thanks for stopping by and sharing your thoughts, Anne.
What continues to astound me is the number of clients who believe they need a non-disclosure or a non-compete clause. There are so few original ideas or original business models that there’s little reason for it.
Look at the creator of Toms Shoes. He has said openly “Go ahead — steal my model” and Skechers did just that, calling their shoes “Bobs.” His goal is to put shoes on the feet of those less fortunate, not protect his product from being ripped off. For that reason, he succeeds. Skechers is doing something identical, but because their focus is on profits normally, it doesn’t resonate with buyers.
What a great example, Lori. Put the exact same product up against one another and the real secret is in knowing and delivering what the customer wants.
Thanks for sharing your story, Lori.