Most businesses are asking the same questions as their competitors.
Which means they're getting the same answers as their competitors.
I've sat through enough strategy sessions to notice a pattern. The questions on the whiteboard are almost always identical.
How do we build a stronger brand? How do we create more customer loyalty? How do we differentiate ourselves in the market?
These aren't bad questions. They're just insufficient.
When everyone's asking the same questions, everyone's chasing the same solutions.
The Questions Everyone Asks
I used to work in the aged care space. I could see this at play every day.
Here are the key messages from the biggest home care providers in Queensland.
Blue Care: Live life your way.
Suncare: We’re here to help you live well, your way.
Feros Care: Do things your way (With our help)
I also kept seeing the same words: wellbeing, independence, choice - and while yes, this is a highly regulated industry which leads to lots of sameness, it’s already telling when it becomes hard to distinguish between providers.
We default to the usual questions because they feel safe. You can measure them, track them, put them in spreadsheets and watch the lines go up or down.
There's comfort in that kind of clarity.
But these questions create a kind of strategic echo chamber. When you're looking at the same data and frameworks as your competitors, you end up with strategies and solutions that sound suspiciously similar.
The Questions Nobody Asks
So what are the questions that actually create competitive advantages?
The ones that no one else is asking.
Finding them requires a different kind of thinking.
It requires questioning the questions themselves.
These questions don't announce themselves. They hide in plain sight, camouflaged by industry conventions and unexamined assumptions.
Your competitors are looking at the same research reports, following the same thought leaders and attending the same conferences.
So how do you find them?
Start by noticing where everyone else is looking in the same direction. That's usually a signal that there's something interesting in the opposite direction.
Pay attention to what makes people uncomfortable in strategy meetings. The topics that get glossed over, and the suggestions that are dismissed as "too risky" or "not realistic right now." Discomfort and fear are usually the things holding you back.
Look for the gap between what your customers say and what they do.
Notice the difference between what your industry celebrates and what actually creates value.
Be honest about whether you’re living out your company values in your daily decisions, or whether those values are actually the right ones.
The questions worth asking are rarely comfortable.
They challenge how you've always done things.
They might require you to admit you've been solving the wrong problem or serving the wrong customer this whole time…
But the most successful companies in the world asked a question nobody else was asking.
And this led them to provide a solution no one was providing.
Your Next Breakthrough Is Hiding Behind a Question You're Not Asking
I genuinely believe this.
The brands I've worked with that have made the biggest leaps didn't get there through better execution of the same strategy. They got there by asking a different question entirely.
The question that made them realise they were serving the wrong customer. Or solving the wrong problem. Or competing in the wrong market. Or measuring the wrong metrics.
So here's what I'd encourage you to do:
Look at your brand strategy.
What questions are you asking? And more importantly, what questions are you avoiding?
What would you discover if you asked:
- Why do people really choose us?
- What would we build if budgets or competitors didn't influence our decisions?
- What assumptions are we making that might not be true?
- What would we do if we weren't afraid?
The answers to these questions won't give you a quick win. But they may give you something much more valuable.
Need Help Finding Your Questions?
I work with businesses to uncover the questions their competitors aren't asking and develop brands that actually matter.
If you're ready to challenge your assumptions and discover what makes your brand genuinely different, let's talk.
Click here to book a FREE brand consultation.
