Staying Above the Competition

As business owners, we tend to keep a watchful eye on what our competitors are doing.  If they are doing something, then we should do that too right?  WRONG!  In actuality, if you take a good hard look at your competitors and who their customers are, and compare them to your business and your customers, you may find they are not your competition at all!

So, how do you stay above the competition?  Here are some tips!

• Stay true to your business:  Know your customers, know your competitors and identify your differentiators.

• Relationship building is key.  Listen to your customers.  We create our own roadblocks when we don’t listen.  If our competitors are listening to our customers, that’s when we lose them.

• Understand your competitors’ style, brand and how they’re communicating.  It’s likely you’ll find their customers are totally different from yours.

• Go back to your “why” and your mission.  In doing so, the competition becomes irrelevant.

• Make more effort to market to existing and potential customers. 

• Brand goes beyond color palette and logo.  Make sure everything about your business matches the way you want it to look and feel.  Look at the whole experience including customer service.

• Create a vision for your company to go with your mission.  This creates a clear action plan for your business for 1, 3 and 5 years from now.

• Tell a story.  It allows human connection.  People do business with people; not a business.

• Know your numbers!  Profit margins – customer value / how much they spend over time – cost of acquisition – ROI – break even, etc.

• Capitalize on your competitors.  Partner with them! 

• Find inspiration in a business you admire.