The World's Second Oldest Profession

So, there I was, standing in the front of a restaurant full to the brim with members from the Business Women’s Network of Howard County, Maryland talking about prostitutes and Eliot Spitzer. Now, there's a sentence I didn't think I would ever write, but it's true. The funny thing is, the metaphor worked like a charm. The question, "what does she have that I don't have and what do I have that she doesn't have" was just what these small business women needed to hear. I gave them a few more, like "stand in your customers shoes" and "be your competitor's customer," but the first really captures the essence of CI for small business. Beware the suited-wonder who tells you that you must have a sophisticated portal and web agents to do competitive intelligence work - it really is the world's second oldest profession and all you need is a pair of eyes, or ears, or somebody else's to look and listen for you. All you need to know is "what does she have that I don't have".

I must admit that at a certain point I was worried that the reference to prostitution would offend some of the women in the audience, just the notion of comparing ourselves to a hooker might be too edgy. But these very smart women caught on immediately and I could see them (or thought I could) visualizing their customers, their business, and their competitors business' in a new way. They were seeing customers as they made a choice between them and the competition. They were seeing themselves as the customer making that choice. And they were seeing that they could do competitive intelligence for themselves and do it well simply by asking a few key questions:

Why would a potential customer choose my competitor over me?
What do my competitors offer that I don't offer?
How can I distinguish myself from my competitors?
What are my customers looking for?
What are my competitors trying to accomplish?
What is my position in the marketplace?

Just the basics are far more than most businesses ever collect. The idea of stepping outside of yourself and your business to find out what is going on in the market is something that so many small business owners never do, never thought to do. My job, standing in front of those women was to introduce them to the idea of doing just thought, doing it purposefully, and asking the right questions. If I had to invoke the business practices of a prostitute that makes $3,400 an hour and it works, then I have Eliot Spitzer's indiscretion to thank for helping a lot of small business owners see the possibilities. You never know, one of them might grow to be a mighty market force and they might even give Spitzer a job out of gratitude....nahhh.

Enjoy!