Become great at radical differentiation
Online course
By Louis Grenier,
Founder @ Everyone Hates Marketers
Course length: 1h 44min
Some of the companies that train their teams at CXL:
Challenge your mindset, engineer your radical differentiation — and ‘jolt’ your market into action so they notice you, trust you, and buy from you.
Introduction video (2 minutes)
Everyone explains that differentiation is business-critical, but no one, not even experts, explains how to actually do it. It’s like trying to draw an owl without knowing what it looks like.
This course will teach you to draw that owl. You will learn timeless principles of business, psychology, and marketing to make your own decisions without doubting yourself. You’re going to feel like every concept just “clicks” together — so you can put them into action.
Together, we will challenge your beliefs to grow your confidence, look beyond demographics to define a market that can’t wait to hear from you, engineer your very own differentiation to stand out, and ‘jolt’ your market into action so they notice you, trust you, and buy from you.
Skills you will master
Alex B.
CXL has helped me tremendously in my journey to become the best digital marketer I can be.
It has opened my eyes to the capabilities of tools like GTM and Google Sheets. You guys have humbled me by teaching me that there’s so much more to learn!
Ap S.
CXL is just the best place to grow for a marketer. I learned more in a few months via CXL than what I learned in 8, 9 months on my own.
After taking this course you’ll…
- Challenge your self-limiting beliefs to grow your confidence and get the best chance to stand out from your competitors who are too afraid to stick their neck out
- Find a profitable portion of the market you can own and defend, who can’t wait to hear from you
- Define the monster that is threatening your market to make people understand what you do without comparing yourself to direct competitors
- Engineer your radical differentiation to become the ONLY solution for the market you seek to serve without having to create a new category
- Jolt your market out of their habits (without being sleazy) so they notice you, trust you, and buy from you
Louis Grenier
Founder @ Everyone Hates Marketers
Louis Grenier is a radical differentiation expert and the moody French guy behind the popular contrarian marketing podcast Everyone Hates Marketers, which’s reached 1M+ downloads with no ads, in less than 4 years.
He’s always felt the desire to stand out, from dyeing his hair bright red as a child, to being called an “intellectual terrorist” by his teachers, to helping companies like Hotjar or Dropbox to differentiate themselves. He now consults with businesses across multiple industries and teaches the topic through high-intensity, practical workshops.
Your course curriculum
Radical differentiation
1 Overview
Topics covered:
- Find out what's wrong with traditional advice on positioning and how it might prevent you from standing out
- Discover what radical differentiation really is (and what it isn't) and why you need to embrace it if you want to become #1 in your market
- Learn why big brands with gigantic budgets can afford to be the same as their competitors (but you can't)
2 Mindset
Your competitors are too afraid to stick their necks out. Learn to challenge your self-limiting beliefs to grow your confidence and radically stand out.
Topics covered:
- Discover what the biggest obstacle to standing out really is
- Find out which false assumptions are holding you back and how to overcome them
- Learn a five-step model to challenge your self-limiting beliefs right now and in the future
3 Your life’s strategy
How to gain the clarity and confidence needed to lead your radical differentiation project
Topics covered:
- Discover why personality tests and other self-reported methods are wrong and what to do instead
- Understand how to combine your talents, passion, and life experience in a way that no one can replicate
- Follow a two-step approach to gain the clarity and confidence you need to stand out
4 Minimum Viable Market – Going beyond demographics
You can't stand out if you try to target everyone. Learn how to go beyond demographics to define a group of people you can own and defend.
Topics covered:
- Learn why your product or service can't stand out from its competitors if it's "for everyone"
- Find out what your Minimum Viable Market is and why it's not just a group of customers who pay you well
- Hypothesize about your Minimum Viable Market based on the data you already have
5 Minimum Viable Market – The laziest way to identify it
There are no facts inside the building. Interview the right customers to extract real insights that will fuel the rest of this course.
Topics covered:
- Avoid the single biggest mistake people make when trying to extract insights from their customers (and what to do instead)
- Learn about the questions to ask your customers to help you identify the right market (including some that you've probably never come across before)
- Make sense of the interview data collected
6 Minimum Viable Market – committing to ONE portion of the market
How to find a group of customers to obsess over for the foreseeable future without regretting your decision
Topics covered:
- Avoid the single biggest mistake most people make when defining their Minimum Viable Market
- Find a profitable portion of the market you can own and defend, who can't wait to hear from you
- Get inspired with Minimum Viable Market examples across industries
7 The Monster – mobilizing people without being sleazy
How pointing the finger at the monster threatening your market will relieve their anxiety and help you to make them understand what you do
Topics covered:
- Find out what conspiracy theorists and your customers have in common (and why it helps people take decisions)
- Discover the questions to ask yourself (and your customers!) to define a 'good' monster
- Define the monster that is threatening your market to make people understand what you do without comparing yourself to direct competitors
8 Radical differentiation – becoming the *only*
How to use the insights you've gathered throughout the last lessons to become the only solution for the market you seek to serve without having to create a new category
Topics covered:
- Discover the four deadly mistakes to avoid when engineering your radical differentiation
- Play inside an existing category to find out where you can zag when others are zigging
- Find out why radical differentiation goes way beyond the features you offer or your messaging
9 Radical differentiation – achieving congruence
Discover what every company that zags when others are zigging have in common (it's not what you think) and how to achieve it
Topics covered:
- Learn why you should avoid "welding a JCB to a Ferrari" and how it might prevent you from winning against the category leader
- Find out what the most important step is when engineering your radical differentiation and why your competitors will ignore it
- Discover different perspectives to play to get inspired and find what makes you truly different
10 Message – how to tell a story that your market gets and remembers
Why storytelling is rooted in our culture and how to use it to your advantage to convey the right message
Topics covered:
- Learn why you can't be radically different with just a compelling message and how it connects to the previous concepts you've learned in the past lessons
- Discover how many different messages you should communicate to have the highest likelihood of being remembered and why using emotions is a misunderstood concept
- Find out the three principles behind a message that sticks
11 The Jolt – making your market notice you without being sleazy
Jolt your market out of their habits (without being sleazy) so they notice you, trust you, and buy from you
Topics covered:
- Discover the two types of decisions people take and why they need to move away from their habits if you want to be noticed
- Learn how to jolt the people you seek to serve into action in one powerful, underutilized concept
- Find out the four principles behind a successful jolt that makes people notice you, trust you, and buy from you
12 The Jolt – Become famous
Build fame to out-share your competition and create mental structures that will predispose potential customers to choose your brand over the other
Topics covered:
- Avoid the biggest mistake you can make if you want to grow your market share and how it costs me my own business a few years ago
- Learn the story of a pots and pans salesman who outsold his competitors by doing something no other salesmen did
- Discover how brands grow and why out-sharing your competition is the only way to build momentum until a point of breakthrough
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Learn how to differentiate your brand: FAQ
What will you learn in this course?
After taking this course you’ll…
- Challenge your self-limiting beliefs to grow your confidence and get the best chance to stand out from your competitors who are too afraid to stick their neck out
- Find a profitable portion of the market you can own and defend, who can’t wait to hear from you
- Define the monster that is threatening your market to make people understand what you do without comparing yourself to direct competitors
- Engineer your radical differentiation to become the ONLY solution for the market you seek to serve without having to create a new category
- Jolt your market out of their habits (without being sleazy) so they notice you, trust you, and buy from you
What does the course include?
Our Brand Differentiation training includes 13 lessons, 46 downloadable resources, 1h 44min of video material, several assignments, and a final exam.
Are subtitles available for the lessons?
Lessons have English subtitles and transcriptions available.
Will I receive a certificate of completion?
After taking this course, you will receive the Brand Differentiation Certification from CXL, with credentials that you can add to your LinkedIn profile.
What is the refund policy?
All plans come with a 7-day no questions asked money back period.
How long will it take for me to finish it?
This is entirely up to you – it’s how many study hours per week you can put in. This course is 1h 44min long.