Act Like A Leader

Act like the leader. Simple advice but I see companies not do this all the time. You’re the leader in this space – act like it. Don’t be ashamed, bashful or defensive about it. This doesn’t mean beat the “we’re the biggest player in town” drumbeat all the time. It means leverage that fact and all that goes along with it to do things that the industry leader does – highlight customers, talk use cases, get more press, hold a user conference.

Act big. You define the game. You are the leader, you set the rules, you define how the game is played.

Don’t react. Smaller (ankle biters) can sometimes bate you into being reactive. Avoid this temptation. Stay above the fray, stay on course (that doesn’t mean be blind to what you’re learning in the market or what others are doing, but don’t fall into the trap of chasing your smaller competitors around).

Stay innovative. You want to keep your competitors scrambling to keep up. You’re already ahead in the market so you can do this effectively. But only if you keep innovating and pushing the industry. Don’t give anyone else the chance to catch up.

Leverage your leading position. This isn’t always possible, but if there are things that you can do from a product perspective that leverage the much larger data set and broader use cases you have access to do them.