Embracing Your Competition

 

There are always benefits to learning from your competitors. You cannot copy them, but it can help you stand on your own. By studying your competitors, you can learn what they do in terms of PR and personal interaction and develop strategies that set you apart in the public eye. Competition in business is always tough, so below are some tips that business professionals offer.

 

Placing yourself in the role of the customer can put you in a unique position to see someone’s interpersonal communication for yourself. Forbes author Peter Heald suggested visiting the stores that sell a similar product and take notes on your experience. Some businesses operate predominantly online, so visit the company’s website and look at the way they communicate with their customer base, and encourage people to return. Doing this might help you come up with a plan to engage potential customers to continue coming back. 

 

A person’s brand is what sets them apart from those in the same field. This gives a business its identity, and it helps create an image and reputation that people will gravitate to. By looking at the image of your competitors, you can learn to set your business brand apart and define the attributes that you want the audience to notice, and the ones you have in common with your competitors. According to John Rampton, author at Entrepreneur.com, this allows you to learn how to cultivate this image, especially you don’t know how yet.

 

While your brand may drive people to your business, marketing is what helps people decide to go with you. Every company has different marketing campaigns to drum up business and keeping track of your competition’s marketing can help you figure out what they have done to avoid any duplication. Some businesses deliver their campaigns online, and you can use sites like Google AdWords to follow them. While this does give you the ability to see your competition’s marketing, paying for these sites also gives you opportunity to share your own marketing for people to encounter. 

 

When looking at your competitors, there may come the temptation to compare your financial status to that of your competition. What important to understand is that some businesses may overstate the nature of their finances. According to Forbes, studies have revealed that “only 8-15% of all businesses use value pricing methods that are based on a customer’s willingness to pay.” You could also face the undesirable position of being able to anticipate future competitors. This is important to understand because adjusting your prices on a reaction to your competitors can lead them to do the same which could lead to an unwinnable price war. Of course, finance is something that people need help with every now and again. IF this is the situation, seek the help of a qualified outside party. 

 

These lessons yield benefits that can help individuals who already have their businesses, as well as those who just entering the playing field. With these lessons in mind, you can set yourself up for success.

Sources:

Article from Entrepreneur.com

Article from Forbes