21 Ways to Keep the Competition from Taking Your Business
Does it seem like the shop down the street always has more business than you do? Or that your consulting calendar has plenty of free space, but Rick Consultant is always booked. There are only four reasons this could be the case…and the following 21 points will help your business not only compete, but win.None of these areas are exclusive, and you will need to do all of them well in order to stop that flow of business to the competitors. Ready? Let’s get to it…
What four areas make you the provider of choice?
- Marketing
- Quality
- Value
- Simplicity
Marketing
- Realize all business owners are in the marketing business.
- If your competitors are getting the business, they are doing a better job at letting the target market know they exist.
- The #1 reason you aren’t getting the customers you deserve is that they don’t know about you yet.
- Spend time crafting a marketing plan that will reach your target market. Your messaging in your marketing materials should cover the three other main points below.
Quality
- Customers want quality plain and simple.
- They are going to your competitors because they perceive the quality to be better than what you provide.
- If what you provide is of superior quality, or your service is of superior quality to that of your competitors, it’s your job to make sure your target audience knows and understands that.
- Market yourself in such a way that customers immediately understand the quality you provide.
- Even better if you market yourself so that your customers understand the quality you provide in relation to the quality your competitors provide.
Value
- Right behind quality comes value. Give your customers value and they will buy from you
- Find ways to provide more value than your competitors
- Adding value does not mean discounting prices
- In fact, adding value usually doesn’t directly cost you anything
- If you add more perceived value you can sometimes raise your prices, get more business, and make more per customer
- Need an example? Offer 6 months free service on a product you sell. Most people will never take you up on it, you can probably charge the same or a little more than a competitor, and if they don’t offer such a service you take business from them
Simplicity
- Are you harder to do business with than your competitor?
- If yes, stop what you are doing right now and fix that!
- Simplicity works as a perceived value to your customers, and again doesn’t cost you anything
- Streamline your processes and procedures to the point they are seamless.
- Be easier than your competitor. Easier at what? Everything!
- Customers are in a hurry. Make it quicker to do business, quicker to pay, and quicker to benefit from your product, and you’ll get the business from slower competition
That’s it. If you market your services to your target market, then follow up with quality, value, and simplicity you’ll be able to redirect the flow of customers from the shop across the street to yours, and it will be Rick Consultant with all the free time on his hands.
Photo Credits: Jaminwell
Good points! I especially like that you hit on simplicity. Small Businesses are sometimes the worst offenders at giving the customer too many choices and confusing them with sloppy web interfaces or product catologues.
Seems so simple! And honestly, if people just ran their business & treated their customers the way that they expect to be treated when the tables are turned, they would be a smashing success!
If companies would just treat their customers the way they want to be treated when THEY are the customer, all would be good, happy & plenty.
Thanks for the simplicity!
-jen
This are all good points especially the simplicity point or as I sometimes call it the KISS method. Keep It Simple and Stupid.
Excellent tips! Thsnk you, I agree, simplicity is best
Great article. Very good tips you got here and yes simple will do!
@Matt
I think the theme would be to keep it simple. Hard things are well, hard and thus many won’t do them.
Matt
@Jen
One of the oldest rules in the book, treat others how you would want to be treated.
Matt
@Gerald
Considering I wrote this, I won’t take offense to the “stupid” part. =)
Matt
It seems that simple is the component you all like the most. Why is it then so many companies try to make it hard?
Matt
“Why is it then so many companies try to make it hard?”
This is a great question, one I’ve thought a lot about. I wonder if it’s because these companies don’t take the time to really THINK THROUGH their processes and systems–whether it’s marketing, sales, service, fulfillment, etc. They kind of do this “fly by the seat of their pants” thing without ever stepping back to get the big picture and/or make tweaks and improvements based on feedback and experience.
As a result, you end up with convoluted, piecemeal systems that are as messy and haphazard as the thought processes behind them.
What do you think?
@Katie Langston
I’d agree with your assessment. This is especially true as companies grow and span of control is spread across functional levels. Each functional area starts working in silos and pretty soon none of the pieces are talking, or keeping the big picture in mind.
Also for some reason we as people believe that more complex is inherently “better”. So we balk at what appear to be simple solutions to complex problems. I’m not saying business is easy by any means, but it doesn’t have to be overly complex and over thought either.
Matt
This post is simple and straight to the point. The 3 top points, quality,value and simplicity are very vital. The best way to achieve that online is through SEO. It is very important to validate your HTML CODES, add targeted keywords and meta tags and most definitely make your site navigation as simple as possible.
Best regards ,
Daniel Chege
:: POPPA PRODUCTIONS WEB DESIGNS ::
Great advice -thanks for sharing.
MO International´s last blog ..Recording Available for B2B Event Webcast