4 tips to Outperform your competition

Описание: Do you treat your competition like a whack a mole game? That carnival game where the mole pops his head up and you take the rubber mallet and as quickly as you can squash it. Understandable we are competitive people by nature, and competition can be a positive behavior, it motivates you to succeed. However, putting all that energy into your competition can be unhealthy for your business and for you as the business owner's mental state. I learned this first hand.

I owned a Children’s Consignment Sales Event business and started it with my friend Sharron. The business was called Just Between Friends and the business model was completely different than anything in our market. Up until we came to town, we had multiple sales in town, Mom’s Sales, Mom’s Expos where moms would bring their children’s gently used clothing and toys and they would have to price their items, set up a table, sit at their table and sell their items. A garage sale under one roof. Our business model was completely different, twice a year we would rent a huge venue, set it up like a temporary department store, Moms would price their items using our software program and drop them off to us. We sold them for them and they got a percentage. When we first came to town we had to educate Moms on this entirely new process of selling their children’s items and we had to compete with multiple moms sales some at large rented venues, others at churches. One day my business partner and I took our promotional flyers and were distributing them all over town, and we noticed one of the mega churches in town was having their annual sale so we thought lets put our promotional flyers on all the car windows under the windshield wipers. Needless to say we were very embarrassed when the organizers of the sale called and asked us not to do that and they didn’t find that very moral way of marketing.

Tip # 1:
Instead of putting your energy and focus on your competition and trying to take away their clients, focus on your business and what differentiates you, your strengths and what you bring to the market. As it turns out the moms that are used to our sale were a different target market than the ones using the other sales. All that time and money wasted when we should have just started by promoting ourselves in the first place.

My next point is understanding you do not have to be everything to everyone. What do I mean by this, take a business owner I know who is a Website Developer. I heard him say he takes his competitors out to lunch. Say what? Here is why? Not all web developers are created equal, what his strengths and who his clients are can be completely different than another. This way they create a relationship and will refer to each other and also it is part of his exit strategy.

Tip #2: Define your audience, be specific, and learn to create your marketing messages to speak to them. There are plenty of clients for everyone, so choose your clients that you know you can help the most.

Tip #3: Don’t let competition hold you back, don’t compare yourself to them, I am learning that all things are not as they seem. You might be so focused on how well your perceived idea of how well your competition is doing and that brings your morale and energy down. you have no idea how they are really doing, how much money they are really spending to attract clients. Etc. Kind of like the person who always tells you what they win at the Casino but fail to tell you how much they lost. I believe there are a buzzillion people on this planet and there are clients for everyone and you have your own unique skills that someone needs. Don’t let a saturated market stop you.

Tip #4:

It is important to be aware of your competition, learn from them, if they are smart they are learning from you but don’t get in a game of “Where’s the Beef” this 1984 ad campaign where Wendys had little old ladies make fun of a hamburger for having such little patties, we can all assume they were bashing McDonalds. This was wildly successful and Wendy’s grew their business 31% that year however, they have the national brand recognition and ad dollars to really bring awareness to a campaign a luxury a small business owner does not have. Therefore, do not bash your competition even if a potential client brings it up and has negative comments to say about them, just tell your future clients what you can do for them, the value they get and the problems you solve.

Take the high road, stay in your lane and you will attract the clients that you are meant to work with and will turn out to be more enjoyable for you anyway.

One of my 6 pillars to Build a Better Business is to help you create a competitive analysis, why do we do this to make sure we are maximizing all opportunities for you and also that you are pricing yourself to maximize profits.

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