ON COMPETITION || There's Bound to be Competition but the Best Way is to Mind Your Own Business
Trying to run ahead while looking back is bound to make you slower.
What’s your most recent memory of playing sports? I used to be on the track and field team, and I recall that even as my teammate passed the baton to me, the practiced handoff didn’t require that I look back to ensure I caught it. I simply moved ahead, first a light job, then a burst of energy — focused on moving forward, faster. The road was clear and mine to dominate.
This is how I feel about the concept of competition. If you run a company, focus on the road ahead, not the competitors coming after you; if you have time to pay attention to what they are doing then you risk falling prey to the greatest risk — imitating what they are doing for fear of missing out. This makes it even harder for your prospective clients to figure out what’s the difference between coming to you versus going to your competitor. What you should be focusing on is finding and honing your ‘smoking gun’ — there may be an area where your competitor may beat you every time, but you also need to find the one thing where you beat everyone else every time. Is it unrivalled creativity? Is it a rock-solid, reliable turnaround time? Is it the biggest distribution network?
Regardless of what your unique selling proposition is, what you should be doing is moving forward towards your customer. Companies that understand what customers want and close that gap with their products and services inevitably win. They’re too busy focused on meeting the demands of customers to pay attention to what their competition is doing. Don’t take the eye off the prize. Now, what’s the prize again? You got it. It’s your customers.
Now, how do you continually figure out where you stand with your customers and refine your offerings to close that gap? Here are 3 things we do.
Ad hoc calls to ask how everything is going. Sometimes accounts hum along and because of this, it may appear as if everything is going well. What happens a lot of the time is customers may encounter some poor experiences but they keep it to themselves. You must not let this fester and build up, because it will get to a point when they decide to shop around and switch services. Hop on the phone once a month to do a quick check-in. All it takes is a phone call and the million-dollar question: “what can we do to do better for you?”
Ask the what-ifs. “If we started offering these services, would you buy?” The follow-up question to that would be “how much would you be willing to pay for it?” I’ve helped out some of our service providers by hopping on calls where they asked me questions about how they could do better. However, when put on the spot to put forward some wish list services I wanted, it’s tough to come up with something concrete. Now, if they turned the tables and pitched me some potential services they could realistically offer and could add value to me, that would make it easier for me to pick; also, because they set the parameters for the service delivery, they know they can execute on the idea IF clients say “YES! We’d love to have that!”
Align your team to a customer service goal. This is something new I am implementing for this year, since our team is at a size where I feel we should be doing an annual retreat to ensure everyone is aligned with the same team goal, I have dialled up every single one of our accounts to ask why they chose us instead of the competition. So far I’ve gotten some expected and some unexpected descriptions. This helps us figure out where we stand in the customers’ perceptions and course correct if needed by sharing these insights with the team.
Instead of worrying about what the competition is coming up with to service their own customers, which may be their own niche group, you should make your own way and go where it’s not crowded with competition by creating a differentiated offering that appeals to your customers. Your best prospect for next year’s sales is this year’s customers, hold on to them tightly by giving them what they want and foreseeing future needs.
