Out-teach your competition. Innovating on arugula.

I’ll never get tired of folks innovating on things that the rest of us overlook, take for granted, or simply treat as a commodity we can’t differntiate from competitors.

So on a bunch of levels, I love seeing this recently in a recipe newsletter my wife and I have been subscribing to for awhile.

just returned from an intensive salad seminar for food recipe developers in Carmel Valley, California, hosted by Dole Fresh Salads. During the course, we learned about some of the latest salad trends and tried some truly innovative ways to incorporate healthy greens and vegetables into all our meals and snacks, including arugula in our pineapple mojitos…

The Scramble

pineapple-arugula-mojito_from-bakedbree.com_1-300x214.jpg

Dole. King of something most people don’t think too hard about.

Salad. Lettuce. Greens.

That’s a quick part of the grocery store for me. I need spinach. It’s there. It’s in the cart. No thought at all. What’s cheapest.

And so here’s Dole, having conferences of all things. Educating people on innovative ways to use their products. Espcially a product I think most people overlook. Arugula.

There are two big lessons that this reminds me of.

First, keep your eyes peeled for how people use a competing product in unique and innovative ways. Then try and clone that use substituting your product as an alternative.

If arugula is my product, I’d spend a bunch of time watching how people use other leafy green vegetables like basil or oregano. Spotting the use of basil in a drink is likely going to open my mind up to experimenting with cocktails and arugula.

Second, out-teach your competition.

Imagine you’re trying to launch a new software product, book, web service, church, small business, social cause, consulting practice, school, podcast channel, rock band, whatever. The most important skill you need today is not fund-raising, financial management, or marketing. It’s not knowledge management, IT, or human resources. It’s not product design, usability, or just-in-time inventory.

The most important skill today is… teaching.

Kathy Sierra

You should definitely read Kathy’s post on the subject.

If you sell cameras and have zero dollars to try and market your product, don’t try and tell the world how awesome the features of the camera are. Spend your time teaching people how to be better photographers.

If you sell arugula, spend your time teaching people how to be better cooks or bartenders.

Just help me be better at the things I wanted to do in the first place whether it’s using something you sell or a competitor. The benefit to you after all: you’ve now got my attention; your competitor doesn’t.

P.S. If a Pineapple-Arugula Mojoito sounds as good to you as it does to me: here.

P.P.S. I’d be incredibly thrilled to meet you on Twitter: here

 
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