‘Tale Means Business: 3 Ways to Stand Out in a Saturated Industry

My industry is saturated, everyone seems to be doing what I am doing!

This is a narrative I have heard several times.

In any growing economy, most industries that provide for the general needs of people will be filled with various businesses catering to those needs.

An industry being saturated is actually an indication that there is strong demand for the products and services being offered in that industry.

So, the goal is to find ways for your business to stand out, so that you can get the right visibility and market share.

Here are 3 ways you can stand out in a saturated market.

Identify a gap and fill it
Believe me no matter how many players, there is always a gap that needs to be filled. Let me use the food industry as an example. A few years ago I was in Las Vegas; my card did not work in most stores, because of the difference in technology.

I started to ration the little cash I had with me, but by my last day, I had run out of money. I couldn’t buy food so I decided to go on a forced all day fast. By 10pm, I was so hungry that I went to one of the bars in the hotel to beg for some fortune cookie. I ate two of them as my meal that day, but by 1am, I was too hungry to sleep.

I began to wonder that surely there would be some overnight food business with a website that I could order food and hopefully my card would work online. I Googled and fortunately found one and my card worked. I placed my order by 2am and my food was delivered in 30 minutes!

I was so happy and the food was so yummy. Anyway they say food is always sweet when you are hungry.

The lesson I learned from that experience is that as saturated as Las Vegas is with restaurants and dinning places, when I wanted food at 2am, the person who served me were the ones who got my money.

How about you, what gap can you fill in your industry?

Create a sub category or niche and dominate 
In any industry, there is something called ‘first mover advantage’. This means that the first person to enter the market usually becomes the market leader. (I have seen a few exceptions)

So how do you stand out in your industry when you are not the 1st or even the 10^th?

Create a Sub-category or niche where you can be the first! ?

A few examples:

1. You might not be the first delivery service company in Lagos, but you can be the first to offer 1 hour delivery anywhere in Lagos (or whatever city you are) if you can pull it off, you can openly brag or promote that you are the ‘No 1 one hour delivery company in Lagos ‘ This way you will stand out!

And everyone who wants quick delivery will come to you plus more money in your account.

2. You might not be the first mobile food restaurant or service provider in your city, but you can be the first to provide same day customized meals. So, if your customer wakes up and wants to eat plantain porridge with shaki for lunch, you can deliver to them by lunch time.

People will rave about your ability to satisfy their food cravings when they want it and of course it will put more money in your account. I hope that makes you as excited as I am.

 Identify a trend and ride it
In the larger society, there are always events, activities, pop culture occurrences that can lead to a trend. A few weeks ago, Davido released the song Assurance and presented a car with ‘Assurance’ as the plate number to his girlfriend on her birthday. A few weeks after, a certain lawmaker presented a car to his wife with ‘Assurance’ as the plate number also.

Now I am sure that we have not seen the last of this trend as many more men are preparing their own ‘assurance’ and their women will be happy to receive it.

So how do you ride this trend? A smart car seller can turn this to an ‘Assurance campaign’ and say that they sell cars that give assurance. An insurance company can say that they offer the real assurance, which is ‘life time insurance’. A wedding ring seller can put a slant to it and say, the real assurance is to ‘put a ring on it’.

Do you get my drift? By riding an already existing trend and promoting it, your business will stand out among the pack of people offering similar products or services.

In my podcast last week, I broke these points down and gave more examples, you can listen to it here.

I also created my own version of assurance for business owners who want to earn consistent 7 figure revenues a month, it is a play book titled ‘Generate 1 million a month’. You can download my free playbook here.