Learn The Unique Ways To Beat Your Business Competitors!

A man to carry on a successful business…must have imagination. He must see things in a vision, a dream of the whole thing. Charles Schwab. In conducting successful businesses, you are always competing against someone or something. Whatever you are selling (product or service) there is always an alternative available in the market. There is always a competition, and it’s a matter of survival of the fittest. Any business/ company that won’t devise innovative means of staying ahead of its competitors, is preparing its own funeral. To win, you have to find out what your prospective customers are considering and positioning your business in such a way that these customers will conclude that what you are offering is the best and superior to anything else available in the market. Remember, customers do not buy features; they buy benefits. They do not buy products or service; they buy solutions to their problems. They are not concerned with what goes into your product; they are concerned about what comes out for them. This article is equipped with all you need to know to stay relevant in the market and remain a master to your competitors! Successful businesses largely involves the process of prospecting, building rapport, identifying needs, presenting solutions, answering objections, closing sales, and getting resale’s and referrals. It’s more or less engaging in an extraordinary complex acts that are the wellsprings of our free enterprise society. Bringing together all the ingredients of a business transaction, including you, the company, the customer, the product or service, the price and terms, the delivery and installation, and everything else to making a given business successful; plus being ahead of your competitors requires a great deal of creativity. This write-up is equipped basically to provide you with what you need to win and remain a leader amidst your competitors. Businesses in some respect is similar to warfare. Strategic<1--more--> decisions in warfare are always made in consideration of what the enemy is doing or likely to do. Many of most crucial business decisions will be determined by what your competitors are doing, or what they are likely to do in order to beat them. In other words, knowing and studying your competitors will go a long way in helping know to win them. Who Is Your Competitor? The first step to beating your competitors is by finding out who they really are. Who are your major and minor competitions? Find out what your competitors are selling, what they emphasize, and how much they charge. What benefits do your prospective customers see in buying from your competitors? How could you offset these perceived benefits? How could position your business in such a way that people buy from you rather than from your competitors? Finding the right answers to questions raised is often the best way to breaking open the entire market. When companies position themselves properly against their competitors, their sales often increase by hundreds of percents. What Are Your Competitive Advantages? The next and the most important step to beating your competitors is discovering and capitalizing on your products or services advantages. Remember, customers aren’t fools, if wish them to see what your offering as the best and to stick to them, you have to convince them, earn it, otherwise you will be wasting your time. “If you don’t have competitive advantage, don’t compete!” Jack Welch. Your competitive advantage is invariably the most important reason that a customer would choose your product or service over that of your competitor. For you to discover fully what these advantages are, you may need to ask yourself these questions… Why should somebody buy your product or service at all? Why should customers buy your product or service from your company instead of from your competitors? What benefits does it offer? i.e., what is in it for the customers to purchase your product rather than someone else’s product, or no one’s product? What does your company/ business offer that other companies/ business do not offer? What are the “hot buttons” that cause the customers to buy? What is your company’s/ business area of excellence? In what ways is your company, product, service, business etc., superior to anything else available in the market? The greater the clarity you have with regard to these answers, the more creative you will be in finding better means of maximizing your advantages and beating your competitors to their games! Further, your ability to use your creativity to overcome buyer resistance and answer objections is essential to your success and having an edge over your competitors. Ways Of Creating Competitive Advantages: Make your product or service special in some way. One of the most creative things you can do to beat your competitors is to offer a product or service that is special in some way; and different from what the customer are accustomed to. Make it offer benefits that customers are willing to pay for that is not available anywhere else. Differentiate your product by making it special in some way, and convince them that your product is better than 95 percent of similar goods or service on the market. Create your area of superiority/ excellence Customers buy a particular product or service because they feel that it is superior in some way to anything else available on market. It’s paramount you build your reputation on a unique selling propositions. Sometimes it is a particular feature or benefit. Sometimes it is lower price. Sometimes it is how you present your products or services, adverts. Sometimes the advantage is that you are the first person who has explained to them how they could improve their lives or work with your product. It may be in of providing world class customer support services. For instance, when IBM was the biggest computer company in the world, it had an extraordinary reputation for world class customer services. For major customers with large computer installations, IBM would often fly in several specialists from different parts of the world, all within twenty-four hours, to get a computer system up and running again. IBM reputation for quality customer service made them the customers’ first choice and the industry world leader. Funny as it may sound, at no time did IBM ever have a better, faster, or cheaper product than its competitors. Some of her competitors had far superior products at lower prices with more features. Their reputation for excellent customer service did the magic for them and enabled them become the most successful company of its kind in the world. Put your unique selling feature (USF) forward In successful businesses, you always lead with the most important benefit that your product can offer your customers in comparison with your competitors. Make this unique benefit the key factor in your advertising, prospecting, and sales activities. Years back, the distributors of Smirnoff vodka attempted to introduce Smirnoff to the market in the United States. They had little success. They spent an enormous amount of money trying to position Smirnoff vodka as a superior choice to whiskey, scotch, gin, rum and other liquors. But to no avail. Finally they discovered the “unique selling feature” (USF) of Smirnoff: after drinking Smirnoff, no one could smell it on your breath! Unlike what is obtainable to other liquors. They instantly created an advertising campaign around this USF with two lines: “Smirnoff! It takes your breath away” and “Smirnoff! It leaves you breathless”. Identifying and putting their USF forward finally did the job after many failed attempts. In no time it became a $500 million product. Identify and put your products or service USF forward and send your competitors out of market. Who Is Your Target Market Exactly? Who exactly is your customers? Remember, your motives are to acquire more markets, penetrate prospective customers (even your competitors’ loyal customers), increase sales, make more profit and become a leader to your competitors! Make a list of all the qualities and characteristics that your ideal customers would have. What would be their age, education, occupation, income level, experiences, attitude, or need? The greater the clarity you have of who your target market are, the easier it will be in knowing where and how to penetrate them than your competitors. Ignorance Can Be The Competitor In some cases, your major competitor is not another competitor. It is ignorance. Customers do not know your product is available. It may be new. It may not be well known. It may not be well advertised. How are you supposed to increase your sales or beat your competitors when customers are not even aware of your product or service? Sometimes, the greatest obstacle holding your business from dominating your competitors’ unawareness of what your product or service can do for a customer. Embark on a massive and aggressive advertising campaign, putting your best foot forward (USF) in those adverts. You may be surprised with the results you see. Who Will Be Your Future Customers? Markets are continually changing, and for you to keep up and not become obsolete you must not only change with it but most importantly be a visionary. Project ahead seven years. Based on current trends, who are likely to be your best customers at that time? What new markets might there be for your products or service? Who else could benefit from your products, business or service that you have not reached? The more you brainstorm about these questions, the more creative ways you will discover to keep you ahead your competitors’ years to come. Penetrate Your Noncustomers Who are the people who could use your product or service, but buy neither from you nor your competitors? Often these people are the “late adaptor” in the market trends. Sometimes they wait for until a new product or service has been tested and proven by the majority of buyers before they risk buying. Most times these people who are not even in the market at all. In reality, the noncustomers constitute the greatest untapped market for your products or services. If you can identify them and find a way to get through to them to tap into this huge late adaptor market of noncustomers, you will surpass your competitors. They can enter your markets by the millions. And you can create sales where no sales exist and where there is little or no competition. This was the method MTN Nigeria used in beating her competitors to their games. Though they were not the first telecom company to arrive the Nigerian market, but today they are not only the giant in the telecom industry, but also the industry leader not just in Nigeria, but the whole of Africa, simply by putting to good use this very method!