I've Always Been... Prickly

I’ve been a bit … “confrontational”… since a young age.

A guy on Twitter posted this today, and got a few comments.

When have you known me to let a jab like that go unanswered!?

(My response below)

Dear Clint,

Competition isn’t polite.

If you have a better product or service, you don’t whisper about it—you call out your competitors by NAME and PROVE it.

Some people want you to believe that naming competitors is “counterproductive” or “bad form.”

Of course they do.

Who benefits from everyone playing nice?

The INCUMBENTS....the ones with the market share, the ones who have every incentive to protect their position.

They’ll say, “Can’t we all get along - come on my podcast… I have a big audience… gentlemen don’t fight dirty!”

...while they quietly maintain their market position with an inferior product.

Calling out competitors is a tool of the insurgent.

• Slack vs. Microsoft - When Microsoft launched Teams, Slack ran a full-page ad in the New York Times, sarcastically “welcoming” Microsoft while pointing out that Microsoft was late to the game and had a closed ecosystem.

• Oracle vs. AWS - Oracle went after AWS by name in ads, calling out high costs, reliability issues, and vendor lock-in.

• ClickUp vs. Asana, Monday, Jira...ClickUp ran billboards and digital ads literally saying, “Don’t choose [competitor]. Pick ClickUp.”

Not calling out competitors is playing defense instead of offense.

It’s leaving the field open for incumbents to control the conversation.

• If you know a competitor is charging more and delivering less, why wouldn’t you say it?

• If a competitor is slow, unreliable, or outdated, why let them keep winning by staying silent?

Businesses that refuse to call out competitors either lack confidence in their own offering or are too afraid of ruffling feathers because of some weird misplaced sense of moral superiority.

And if you’re too afraid to tell customers why you’re better, why should they believe you?

This COUNTRY was built on calling out the competition and proving them wrong:

What if the Founding Fathers had refused to call out the British?

What if they had said,

“Well, we don’t want to seem negative, let’s not name names, King George has a big audience maybe he'll promote my services to his audience and invite me to speak at his conference ”?

NO.

They publicly called King George a tyrant and laid out every single reason why he was failing the American colonies.

They wrote it in the Declaration of Independence.

OF COURSE, the people who already hold power want you to play nice.

That’s how they stay on top.

But history—and business—has always belonged to the people confident enough to be disagreeable & say the quiet part out loud:

We’re better, and here’s why.

Want to avoid competition?

Go somewhere where mediocrity is rewarded.

I hear everyone is SUPER nice in North Korea.

But in America, you win by being better—and proving it.

If you are going to try this, here are a few rules I try to follow:

1) Nothing overly personal like going after someone’s kids or something.

2) It must be ENTERTAINING. Just saying “lame” doesn’t pass that test.

3) It can’t be nihilistic. If it has no tie in to your product - its being destructive for no purpose.

4) Playful is usually a safe bet

5) Honestly, when the competition is so self serious, the stuff writes itself

Yallah Habibi,

Jon

In honor of the above, here are a few of the most recent/fun boogers I’ve flicked at our competitors: