Don't answer this question: "How is this better than other products?"
All of this is based on my personal opinion, and you might agree with it or find it totally wrong, and I'm completely open to new ideas.
You post the news of launching the MVP or alpha version of your product on IHs, Reddit, or wherever.
Hopefully, at the very least it was the problem you were facing and hopefully at least you, a person dealing with that problem, couldn't find a good solution for your problem.
Now, still you want to get some feedback from the audience, perhaps you expect to be asked some tough questions and based on those conversations clarify the path forward a bit better.
One of the most useless questions I'v seen very often is this one:
"How is this better than other products?"
Simply don't answer this question, instead you can start with asking
"Which product are you particularly interested in?"
If they cannot answer this question, they're just speculating there might be lots of competitors and they are not even a potential user so unless you have any other reasons, better not to continue the conversation.
If they can answer your question on the other hand, now you might be able to get somewhere as they might have used similar solutions.
I posted the launch of alpha version of my no-code automation tool, DoTenX, a few days ago on Reddit and HN.
The three best questions where comparing it with Zapier, and particularly n8n and actually they were very specific about whether DoTenX can support particular features missing in those products.
Conversations like this can potentially end up turning into great leads which happened in this case too.
P.S: "If they really are your target audience, they'll ask very specific questions."
Hey Mohsen,
I've been marketing & selling everything from tech solutions to consulting to services & events for nearly two decades at this point and in my experience, if you cannot provide a clear answer to 'how are you better/different?' from the competition you are going to struggle.
Differentiation is literally the cornerstone of any successful business. This doesn't mean that you can't make any money, but if you have nothing new/different/better to offer that you cannot EASILY communicate to everyone in a way that they can understand then you're going to be working harder than you need to.
IMHO the best thing that you can do will be to come up with a simple and easy to understand line that explains to everyone how you are different from your competitors in a way that you can prove in a concrete way (no 'best quality' 'number 1' etc.)
Take me for example. How is my book different from others? It's different because it teaches a marketing strategy that is the most effective on the planet but has been misunderstood by everyone. Nobody else teaches this strategy except me.
Or lets look at personal budgeting software You Need A Budget (YNAB). YNAB is the only personal budgeting software that has a built-in methodology to help you get better at managing your money.
There's a million examples I could use but i'll finish there for sake of brevity. Hope that helps.
Best
Chris
Hey Chris,
I really like the idea to reply with your key differentiator in such a case. I have to put it into test and see the result.
I'm just sometimes not even sure about the intention of people giving very generic comments or asking such questions tbh.
Hey,
Think of it this way.
Even if your reply does nothing for the person asking the question (cos they aren't a potential customer for example), you're still putting it out there online for others to read. It's highly likely that others who are reading it are potential customers and therefore your answer can influence them.
Plant seeds.
Good point, it's an opportunity anyway.
I agree. Ultimately is the answer to what value are you bringing with your product and services.
I made a financial modeling tool recently that can help us assess that quickly: https://increnovation.azurewebsites.net/fermi/highlevel
Also, nothing wrong with copy cat if you are bringing value into the world. My father basically made digital watch and telephone affordable 40 years ago. He didn’t invent telephone or digital watch. But he enabled the $3 digital watch and significant reduce the cost to purchase a phone. Those products snowballed the semiconductor industry in Taiwan where tsmc and others are powering the world today
This is well written.
Answering this question requires deep understanding of ones product and the value it brings. Different product solve for different uses cases, and always have 1-2 hero uses cases for which they stand out.
One the best ways to address this would be to be specific with the need, then relate that specificity with the value our product brings in. And bring the focus back to this discussion.
An example (something we get asked a lot. We sell a WhatsApp Marketing Cloud for D2C startups):
How are you better than X?
We respond by asking for which specific pain point or use case.
We touch upon the marketing copy. While competitors sell more or less the same product that we do, we are better by offering 100s of professionally written WhatsApp marketing templates that saves expenses on copywriters and marketing executives.
And truth is none of us know in depth all the things that our competition provides, neither do the prospects. evening mentioning this upfront in the discussion with honesty also helps.
Absolutely.
There is no single best product and if you really want to compare a product with others or at least understand what are its key advantages you have to be a bit specific.
Amazing post thanks a lot for sharing i can add too to this that the potential customers does not know why he is using your service it's a problem. Ask him first to say what is his problem currently to make things clear from the beginning
Also i checked your website when you refresh the page there's a little bug. Did you develop the website yourself ;) ? Either way it's a very cool design
Thanks for checking it out. I know it's not perfect and doesn't even have the pricing section.
It's all as we're doing a lot of things and have to prioritise. Glad you like it anyway :)
Appreciate it.
Absolutely, and if they cannot answer that question, it's not a good sign.
You don't have to be better, or prettier. Just execute better. Forget about new features. Just sell the product.
Very good point.
Specially when you're small you can provide unmatched support to your customers and you get to learn from them. They usually ask for features they don't find in other alternatives and that's where you start to shape your own type of product.
I am a web developer and I create this website
https://apkoryx.com/download-modern-command-mod-apk/
Anybody can give me some feedback about my website so I can solve the issues!
Btw, What's the pricing for dotenx. Why are you hiding it?
Not hiding anything, will update it by Monday :)
These unwanted questions can be a sign that the product's message is unclear.
Your definition of target audience seems to be on the edge. They don't necessarily do their full research before approaching. They may be window-shopping, having a brief idea on the topic and alternative solutions. Target audience doesn't mean they suppose to convert after the conversation. They may come back in a month after their need of the solution arises.
For example, before I started this journey I searched for the payment solutions without having anything to sell. If I couldn't sell there were no reason for me to start. Once I build my products I go ahead an created a Stripe account, Wise account, ko-fi, buymeacoffee... The ones I researched before, I skipped PayPal, Patreon, Gumroad etc. Because I asked this "How is this better than other products?" question on the forums before. ;)
I'm not saying something wrong with your approach, you do you. It's just unless you are not making millions, answering a few boring questions shouldn't be a big problem.
So to understand better your example, did you ask such a question from someone else when they posted a similar product? I'm not following it tbh.
Regarding your last sentence, maybe I gave the wrong impression, specially as a founder we're usually more than happy to talk to potential users.
However, my point was about this vague question that sometimes people ask and it can give you the impression the market is flooded with so many fantastic competitors where no room for improvement is left.
I ask vague questions all the time, either in public or to the founder if they are approachable. I don't need to master their field, they are "bound" to teach me what they are selling.
If someone come up with an alternative to an existing solution, first question to ask is why? Literally why. Someone already solved it. What did you improve, maybe it's cheaper, it's faster, it has to be something and asking this shouldn't be weird or annoying. Especially if it's unclear at first sight.
Imagine a scenario, I read about no-code yesterday and started to research today. End up in this post and followed the link to dotenx.
"10X your performance with the most flexible, scalable and customizable automation platform." That's all. What do I suppose to ask? It looks like an alternative to zapier. So does it offer more platform connections, better costs, better support? What else can I ask?
HEllO
How can you prove your product is better than others?
EIGHT WAYS TO DIFFERENTIATE YOUR PRODUCT FROM COMPETITORS
You can differentiate your product by size. ...
You can differentiate your product by origin. ...
You can differentiate your product by branding. ...
You can differentiate your product by your packaging. ...
You can differentiate your product by adding a simple feature or ingredient.
Best Regard For
https://apkomex.com/download-diamond-quest-mod-apk/
So you mean, sometime the question is just to start the conversation and learn about the product?
Well, I never thought about that.
I completely agree that the seller has the responsibility of educating the user, but again in your example you asked very specific questions :)
There is no need for me to do the guess work. You may offer the same costs or similar support but better UI. So asking a generic question shouldn't be considered bad imho.
I don't say I'm loving it but it's not bad either. I've seen worse, people asked me "oh you are asking for $X for this?". "Why would I pay you while I can do it with this for free" Often times I don't have the right response. But I know in our space with limited customer base founder's approach/response influences the buying decision.
What I'm trying to say is simply; you are becoming the authority by offering a solution. People asking questions dumb or smart doesn't matter, it tells your willingness to help/improve their lives or make money solely.
Fair enough
Another great option that never seems to get mentioned in articles like this is http://paintsguru.com/
If I wasn't using React + TypeScript then I'd probably be giving Solid + TypeScript a go.
"It isn't. I'm just hoping you don't find out about the other products!"
Can you elaborate please?
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one of those generic comments :D
This comment was deleted 4 years ago
Appreciate it.