Why Your Customers Compare You to the Competition (And How to Escape That Trap)
Why Your Customers Compare You to the Competition (And How to Escape That Trap)
If you sell a service or product and feel like you're constantly being compared to others, that conversations end with "let me check other options" or that you compete primarily on price... this article is for you.
But I'm not going to give you differentiation tips or phrases to "handle objections."
I'm going to show you why you're trapped in that dynamic — and how to escape it by changing just one thing about how you think about your business.
The Trap We All Fall Into
When someone asks you "what do you do?", what do you answer? Probably something like:
- "I have a digital marketing agency"
- "We sell management software"
- "We're human resources consultants"
It's natural. That's how we were taught to describe a business: by what we do, by what we offer.
The problem is that when you define yourself this way, you automatically enter a category. And categories have competition. Lots of it.
Your client thinks: "Ah, digital marketing. I know three other agencies. Let me compare."
And there began the race to the bottom.
The Error Is in the Question
Most entrepreneurs ask themselves: "How do I make my product better than the competition's?"
More features. Better price. Faster. Better service. But that question assumes your competition is whoever sells the same thing as you.
What if that weren't the case?
The McDonald's Milkshake Case
Clayton Christensen, a Harvard professor, tells a story that changed how we understand competition.
McDonald's wanted to sell more milkshakes. They did the obvious: surveys. "What would improve the milkshake? Thicker? More flavors? Cheaper?"
They implemented the changes. Sales didn't move.
Then they tried something different: they observed when people bought milkshakes.
They discovered that 40% of sales occurred before 8am. People alone, without children, buying only the milkshake and leaving in their car.
Why?
When they interviewed these customers, the answer was revealing:
"I have a long commute to work. I need something that entertains me, keeps me full until lunch, that I can consume with one hand while driving, and that doesn't make a mess."
The milkshake wasn't competing against other milkshakes. It was competing against bagels (which leave crumbs), against bananas (which are gone in two minutes), against the boredom of traffic.
The "job" the customer needed to do was: survive a long and tedious commute feeling full and entertained.
McDonald's didn't need to make the milkshake sweeter. They needed to make it thicker (to last longer), with fruit pieces (more entertaining), in a narrower cup (easier to hold).
When they understood the job, they stopped competing against Burger King.
What This Means for Your Business
Your customers don't buy from you because of what you sell. They hire you to do a job in their life.
That job has three dimensions:
- Functional: What do they need to accomplish concretely?
- Emotional: How do they want to feel?
- Social: How do they want to be perceived?
When you understand the complete job, you stop defining yourself by your product and start defining yourself by the problem you solve. And when you do that, your competition changes completely.
A Closer Example
Imagine you sell project management software.
If you define yourself by the product, you compete against Asana, Monday, Trello, Notion, and fifty others. But if you investigate the job your customers are trying to do, you might discover something like:
"When my team works remotely and I have three simultaneous projects, I want to know what everyone is working on without having to ask, so I can leave peacefully at 6pm without feeling like something is slipping away."
The job isn't "managing projects." The job is going home peacefully.
Your real competition isn't Asana. It's the anxiety of not knowing what's happening. It's the WhatsApp messages at 9pm asking "how are we doing?". It's the manager's insomnia.
When you understand that, your marketing changes. Your product changes. Your sales conversation changes.
You no longer say "we have Kanban boards and Gantt charts." You say "stop chasing your team to know what they're working on."
Why They Compare You to the Competition
Now let's go back to your initial problem.
They compare you because you're playing in the field of categories. "Marketing agency" is compared with "marketing agency." "X Consulting" is compared with "X Consulting."
In that field, the only question is: who does it cheaper, faster, or with more features?
But when you define yourself by the job the client needs to do, you exit the category. You don't compete against other agencies. You compete against the problem the client is trying to solve — and against all the other ways (good and bad) they're trying to solve it today.
The Question You Should Be Asking
Instead of "how do I improve my product?", ask yourself: "What job is my client hiring me to do?"
And then go deeper:
- At what moment does that need arise?
- What have they tried before that didn't work?
- How do they want to feel when the job is done?
- What scares them or gives them anxiety about the process?
The answers to those questions are worth more than any competitive analysis.
A Shift in Perspective
There's a phrase that summarizes this idea:
"People don't want a drill. They want a hole in the wall."
But even that falls short. They don't want the hole. They want to hang their family picture so their living room feels like home.
When you reach that level of understanding, you no longer sell drills. You help people create homes. And nobody compares you to the hardware store on the corner.
If your customers constantly compare you to the competition, you're probably defining your business from what you offer.
But customers don't buy products or services. They hire solutions for specific jobs in their life.
When you understand the job — with its functional, emotional, and social dimensions — you stop competing in the generic category.
Your differentiation stops being artificial ("we're the fastest", "we have better service") and becomes real: you're the one who best understands and solves that specific job.
That's not easily compared.
References and Resources
- Christensen, C. M., Hall, T., Dillon, K., & Duncan, D. S. (2016). Competing Against Luck: The Story of Innovation and Customer Choice. Amazon
- Jobs to be Done Framework - Official Site
- Harvard Business School - Clayton Christensen
- JTBD Playbook - Intercom
