As we entered this century it became ever more clear that we were moving from a world of relative scarcity to one of vast abundance. As everything that can be connected is connected, as once meaningful friction erodes, and when just about anything we might want is available 24/7 from just about anywhere, we are no longer competing with the best in town, we are in competition with the universe.

The result is a world where there is often too much of everything and not nearly enough of anything truly remarkable.

When I talk about remarkable, I mean it in the way that Seth Godin advanced in his groundbreaking 2003 book Purple Cow. There is, of course, the common meaning of the word: something remarkable is highly unique, quite different, unusual. But the secret sauce, the top spin, the X factor, is the other sense of the word: something remarkable literally causes people to remark upon it.

If we are going to find our way out of the boring, undifferentiated middle, we’re going to have to do more than simply satisfy our customers’ needs at a decent price. Existing loyalties are often quite set. Our ideal prospects typically have plenty of decent alternatives to what we sell. We must take our game to a whole new level.

If you want a glaring example of what remarkable doesn’t look like, walk through a typical large mall. During your stroll, you won’t have a hard time picking out dozens of shops that seem designed for an era that no longer exists. Visit one of the midpriced anchor stores and you might feel like you’ve accidentally wandered into The Museum of Disappointment.

For a long time, serving the peak of the bell curve, chasing the largest possible audience, and making average stuff for average people was a winning strategy. When it was harder to access ready substitutes, the sheer volume of options was far lower; and customers couldn’t surf the internet to get useful, reliable information about our product or service, we could get away with being merely very good, or just marginally better than average. Frankly, sometimes even just barely serviceable. Customers would settle because for all practical purposes they had to.

Today, the situation is clearly very different. Today, if we aren’t truly remarkable, not only do we not get the sale but we may not even get noticed in the first place. And even if we command a prospective customer’s attention, if all we offer is a slightly better version of mediocre, there is almost certainly someone willing to offer the same thing at a lower price.

Trying to be everything can often end up not being very much of anything.

 

This post is a modified excerpt from my new book Leaders Leap: Transforming Your Company at the Speed of Disruption, available now in hardcover wherever books are sold, as well as from Audible, and at a special low price on Kindle.