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by
Bill Dueease
Copyright © by Bill Dueease
The Coach Connection
Business owners frequently consider
their competition as the enemy. Many focus on "beating the other
guy" because that’s how they measure their success—just
like in sports, where one side has to beat the other to win. However,
by focusing on beating the competition, you will divert yourself from
your real objectives: increasing profits, gaining more time and gaining
more control. Bottom line, you will succeed at these goals only by improving
yourself and your business, regardless of the competition.
Let’s look at how this can
be done.
The first step in prospering because of competition is to identify
and analyze the “Real Competition.” It’s frequently not
readily apparent. Sure, your business might have new and unique products
or services, but when the needs they actually fulfill are defined, you’ll
discover that many other types of products and/or services fulfill similar
(if not the same) ones.
The second step is to evaluate your competition thoroughly—to
know more about them than they or your potential customers do. You gain
considerable knowledge and power by doing this, which you will be able
to use during the next step.
That’s right! In fact, you want
and need competition. Here are several of the reasons why
:
•
They will want to compare your business and your products and/or services
to someone or something in order to see and feel that your products and/or
services provide the best deal for them. Everything is relative, and comparison
in buying is a very natural thing. The more you know about the customers
perspectives of your competition, the easier you will be able to position
your business to be better in the eyes of your customers, and the easier
you will be able to educate them to how well your products or services
shine.
That is . . .
1. You need to avoid and/or get relief from bad customer experiences.
You quite often spend too much time, money and effort on extremely demanding,
very price conscious, "unappeasable" customers, who almost always
produce no profits and sometimes create losses. Even worse, they distract
you from your best customers, who drift away in silence.
2. You might as well let your competitors deal with these problem people.
Let your competition waste their energy and resources on these troublesome
people and thus probably overlook the better ones—who might seek
you out.
3. You show strength to customers when you don’t fear competition.
Many potential customers will try to threaten you and your business with
"The Competition" as a negotiating tactic. Your confident understanding
of your competitors and of your desirable customers will allow you to
educate them to the real differences. This is how you can position your
business favorably.
Monopolies create terrible consequences. Competition creates a desire
to keep getting better. By not improving, a business is not standing still—in
reality it’s declining toward its demise.
You will want to execute very profitable programs that follow similar,
if not identical, programs previously instituted successfully by competitors.
Does the term "re-engineering" sound familiar? Japanese automakers
dissected American and European cars then took the best features and combined
them into very desirable products that filled many needs the other automakers
failed to provide.
They may choose to ignore your potential
customers or interact offensively with them, or they may be incapable
of providing the benefits that your customers want.
When they create new markets they
allow you and your business to move in and prosper. Sound silly? Look
how fast food restaurants feed off of each other by congregating in certain
areas, making it very easy for customers to pick from a number of choices.
Some fast food companies position their stores near the Mcdonalds that
open up in a new area, to feed off of the traffic created by McDonalds.
Establish your business so that it will be much more desirable to your
target customers, when they compare you to your competitors. Use the knowledge
gained in the above steps to create a comparative edge in as many ways
as possible. Encourage your customers to compare, especially in the areas
where you have the favorable edge. This allows them to make a confident
decision to buy from your business because you appear to be better for
them than your competitors.
Examples of how businesses thrive
because of their competition
There are examples all around you of business owners thriving because
of their competition. One couple, for example, started a cleaning business
in the face of an overabundance of competitors and greatly prospered,
even with higher prices. They succeeded because they were the only business
to quickly answer the phone with a live friendly person to immediately
tend to customer requests. Their competition actually drove excellent
customers to them.
In another case, a development group created an extremely profitable new
ski resort by concentrating on providing warm, courteous and ever-increasing
benefits to their skiers. The existing ski areas considered themselves
the "only game in town" and were more focused on treating their
directors as semi-royalty, while they virtually ignored their paying customers.
The developers of the new resort feasted on the monopoly the others thought
they had.
By using your competition and what you learn from them, you too can prosper
because of your competition.
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Fountain Valley, California
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