What Sales and Customer-Facing Professionals Can Learn from Blue Ocean Strategy
Assuming you have to pitch your product the same way every competitor pitches theirs, competing on the same standard features and price, is the specific trap Blue Ocean Strategy names, and it's an easy one to fall into when an industry's usual sales pitch feels like the only way to sell.
The whole book, compressed
This edition works through 4 core lessons — take them one at a time, not all at once.
What's different for your conditions
Tap whichever ones sound like you. Nothing here is sent or saved — it's just for your own noticing.
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The core lessons, applied to you
Stop competing head-to-head in a crowded market
Pitching your product on the same standard features and price as every competitor puts you in a direct, margin-crushing comparison regardless of how good your product actually is.
A salesperson pitches a product mainly by comparing its features and price to competitors, and the conversation becomes about matching or beating those, rather than about a genuinely different value proposition.
Identify one part of your pitch that competes head-to-head on features or price, and ask what a genuinely different framing would look like.
Pursue differentiation and low cost at the same time
Finding a way to offer something genuinely different at a more attractive price, rather than assuming differentiation always costs more, changes the whole conversation with a prospect.
A salesperson assumes a more differentiated offer must come with a higher price, without questioning whether some standard, less-valued features could be dropped to fund a genuinely better price alongside real differentiation.
Identify one standard feature prospects rarely mention valuing, and consider whether removing it could fund a stronger overall offer.
Question what your industry has always competed on
Treating your industry's usual set of features and pricing structure as fixed, rather than something you could eliminate, reduce, raise, or add to, limits how differently you could position your offer.
A salesperson accepts the industry-standard pitch structure as the only way to present the product, without ever asking whether some standard talking points actually move the conversation forward.
List the standard points in your usual pitch, and identify one that could be eliminated entirely without prospects actually missing it.
Look beyond your current customers to people you aren't serving at all
Prospects who currently buy nothing from your industry at all are often a source of growth that direct competition for existing buyers doesn't offer.
Closing today's deal within the usual competitive frame and building a genuinely differentiated pitch aren't opposites — a differentiated pitch often closes more easily than one competing head-to-head on the same terms as everyone else.
Name one thing, honestly
Who isn't buying from anyone in your industry right now, and what would it take to reach them?
Good. Now look back at the "Try this" line under whichever lesson feels most connected to what you just wrote, and treat that as this week's actual assignment — not all 4 at once.
The practices from this edition
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Run this for seven days
List the standard points in your usual pitch, and identify one that could be eliminated entirely without prospects actually missing it.