Breaking Down "the Status Quo"

"The status quo."

It's the second-worst response I hear when folks are explaining who their competitors are.

A quick Google search defines the status quo as "the way things are now."

Talk about vague.

Yet that's as far as many founders, CEOs, and other executive leaders will go when they think of threats to their business.

I might be coming off harsh, but imagine you're an investor.

A founder of a unique beverage product reaches out to you looking for funding.

As a diligent investor you ask the founder: "what's the biggest threat that may get in the way of the business succeeding?"

The founder turns to you and says, "the way things are now."

HUH?????

Idk about you, but I'd pass on that investment :-)

Now let's tweak that scenario to make "the status quo" work for the founder AND the investor.

The founder of the unique beverage product reaches out to you looking for funding.

As a diligent investor you ask the founder: "what's the biggest threat that may get in the way of the business succeeding?"

This time, the founder confidently responds, "the biggest threat is our target audience being unwilling to change their morning routine from drinking coffee to drinking our product. 53% of American adults drink coffee every morning. That number shrinks to 36% at age 21. If we target ages 18 - 21, we'll have a higher chance of avoiding this unwillingness to change and become a part of the morning routine for an entire generation of Americans."

See what happened there? The founder named the status quo (coffee) and then explained how they considered that threat when they built their strategy.

As an investor, I'd have much more confidence funding the latter business with my hard earned money over the former.

"The status quo" isn't inherently a bad answer. But please be thoughtful when you use it.

Do you understand specifically what the status quo is for your target audience? Can you name it? Can you explain why it's the status quo? When is it a threat? How does your product have a chance of winning against it?

If you can answer these questions, then you're heading in the right direction.

Here are a few examples of companies that have done this well:

• ​MUD\WTR (status quo = consuming coffee and feeling jittery or anxious as a result)

• ​Rad Power Bikes (status quo = cars and their impact on your finances and the environment)

• ​Loftie (status quo = cell phones being used for alarm clocks and losing sleep as a result... s/o to Jen Allen for sharing this on LinkedIn the other day)

How To Rank Competitive Content On Google

In this podcast episode, I was joined by Federico Jorge (Founder of Stack Against) and JJ Haglund (former Adobe and Amplitude) to talk all things relating to SEO and Competitive Intel.

We dove into the different types of competitive content that Google ranks, the strategies you should consider, how JJ attributes the majority of his side hustle business to SEO, and Federico's new free resource, the Competitive Keyword Generator.

Please do yourself a favor and check out the Competitive Keyword Generator. It's free and insanely useful if you're building out a competitive SEO strategy.

What’s Happening Now

• Google is taking Microsoft's investment in OpenAI very seriously. They re-engaged with founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin to figure out how to respond. More here.​

• This Saastr article about stealing competitors' customers is a couple years old, but I revisit it all the time. It shares a 5-step overview to building out a dedicated competitor "steal team." More here.

Alright that's it for me this week.

Can you believe this is the third newsletter I've sent and nobody's responded saying "hi??" I don't bite I promise. Reach out, say hey, and let me know what you thought of this one :-)

-Andy