Linking into the competition

A friend commented this morning that hitting the town at SXSW was getting linked into the competition. Nobody thinks in terms of competition at a conference, but it’s been a long time since I’ve even thought about what a competitor looks like here, at home, or any where.

First off, we get too many leads to act on. Considering we’ll never evolve the agency to handle volume, the idea of keeping prospects in the dark about others in the same space makes little sense. I’d much rather see potential clients bounce to another developer if we aren’t a solid fit.

I’ve written before about the large amounts of traffic we get from design galleries. Screenshots of our site are surrounded by the sites of others who do what we do. Because of that, we know that leads coming at us from those referrers like what we do – our design style matches their design taste. And I’ll trade 10 blind leads for one pre-qualified lead any day. (Anyone want to trade?)

Second off, there’s a huge potential for collaboration. As the needs of clients get more and more sophisticated, the potential advantage of involving the work of others increases dramatically. And as those scenarios hit, I want to be “linked in” to my “competition.”

Third off, I want feedback. If I say something, do something, or think something, I want to hear what others think. Ideally the others are people who do what I do (you know, our competitors.)

I had a good time talking with Jonathan Snook, Dan Cederholm, and others (I’ll stop lest I’m called a name dropper) last night – both are great designers who do what we do. It wouldn’t occur to me that these guys are competitors. Nor would it occur to me to avoid Deane as a competitor. Blend is just down the street from us, but how is that any different than Sidebar or SimpleBits any more?

What did occur to me is that I’m not putting enough effort into “linking into the competition.” Last night’s crowds were packed with people I thought I should know but only one or two I had ever actually [previoulsy] met. I need to work harder at it, so if I have any “competitors” reading, let me know. Maybe we can trade some leads.