Know The Competition

Writen by Bette Daoust, Ph.D.

Beating the competition can often be very difficult, especially when your business is fairly new and the competition has a stranglehold on the market. Thankfully there are several options for getting a piece of the market.

• Create a bigger market. If the piece of the pie has been pretty well taken, then bake a bigger pie. What I mean is find a niche that your competition is not working on. You can establish yourself by knowing where your competition sells their products and services and where they do not. You are far better off going where they are not currently selling and own that piece of the pie. When they see you are successful in that niche, they may want to follow. If you own that niche, you will be the one that is established. The competition will not have the stronghold.
• Learn everything you can about the competition. Do some research. Find out who their customers are (discover the demographics, geographics, psychographics, and anything else you can think of) and how often they buy plus what they buy. This will give you a good indication as to the market and desire for your product or service.
• Hunt down how the competition markets to their customers. Do they use direct mail, flyers, email campaigns, coupons, telesales, a salesforce, loss leaders, etc. You need to be in the know for the types of marketing they do and what works for them. If you only have one competitor, you will have no difficulty discovering their techniques. If you have more than one competitor, your research will include everything from these organizations as well. You will find there is often a common set of marketing tactics but you will more than likely discover some new and interesting methods.
• Become a customer for your competition. If you have several competitors, become their customer as well. What will this do for you? It will enable you to be on the receiving end of the marketing material. An easy way to study the tactics without spending too much money (except for the products or services you buy from them). You may even find the opportunity to ask their marketing departments about what works and what does not. You have to make the call on this one as they might not like knowing you are their competition.

I personally like making a bigger pie and finding a niche where my competition has not yet penetrated. It is much easier to create a new market than try to grab a piece of something that has loyal customers.

In summary:

1. Create a bigger pie
2. Discover all you can about your competitions customers
3. Discover all you can about your competitions marketing tactics
4. Become your competitions customer

Bette Daoust, Ph.D. is a speaker, author (over 170 books, articles, and publications), and consultant. She has provided marketing, sales, business development and training expertise for companies such as Peet's Coffee & Tea, Varian Medical Systems, Accenture, Avaya, Cisco Systems to name a few. Dr. Daoust has also done extensive work with small businesses in developing their marketing, training, and operational plans. You may contact Dr. Daoust at http://BizMechanix.com You may also view her latest publications at http://BlueprintBooks.com or http://CreditRepairForEveryone.com