Separating Yourself From The Crowd!
All of us have competition. Competition is an ugly word but competitors are a fact of life in business. Your business must compete with other businesses. You must create an edge separating your business from the competition.
You should learn everything there is to know about your competition and to understand and know what their marketing strategies are.
The first thing you should do is to make a list of the competitors that are a threat to you and your future. Take the time to research them and get a feel for how they deal with their customers, then answer the following questions:
- Do they have testimonials and are they positive?
- Do they offer discounts?
- Do they offer a guarantee and do they have a return policy?
- By comparison, are their prices in line and competitive with yours?
- Do they offer anything special like free delivery or double your money?
- Which areas are they negligent in and how can you capitalize on it?
- How do they promote their business?
- What do they offer that you don’t?
Now you should create a profile of each of your main competitors. Outline how they advertise and why you think their customers shop there; in fact, you should try to locate one of their customers and ask them that question. Next determine what areas they need to improve on and how successfully you can expect to compete with them.
Doing the above will help you understand your competitors strengths and their weaknesses.
Now, evaluate and compare your own strengths and weaknesses, in comparison to the competition.
Once you have this list, you can now shout the differences between you and your competition in all of your advertising and marketing methods.
The information that you glean about your competition will also help you formulate your Unique Selling Proposition.
This is why it’s important to research your competition first. One of the keys to a successful business is identifying what makes your business unique and letting everyone know about it.
This in turn will help your prospects understand why they should buy from you, rather than the competition. When it is used successfully, it makes you the obvious choice in their minds.
The best USP’s consist of unique concepts that set your business favorably apart from your competition.
A business that employs USP’s has a way of competing in the marketplace that goes way beyond price. Price will never be an issue.
Let me know what your USP’s are in the comment section.
Howdy Ken,
Thanks for this post. I will research my competition and figure out my usp. The only unique thing I can think of off the cuff is that I also repair fire sprinkler systems. None of my competitors offer this service in our area.
On Google maps I show off my fire sprinkler systems that I have installed.
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Ken Varga Reply:
June 5th, 2010 at 11:13 pm
William, repairing the fire systems makes you unique. Maybe you could also create a maintenance service for the systems. This will not only create a safe environment for your customers, but it will also create a residual income for you.
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I was wondering what your thoughts were about the “mafia offer” tactic and how you compare it to the USP.
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Ken Varga Reply:
October 29th, 2010 at 11:23 am
@Anthony Lusich,
Anthony,the USP tells what your company is about and who your target audience is. It is a tag line that’s printed on your letterhead, business cards, etc. It is what influences your marketing direction. The mafia offer is a specific offer you make today, for the month, or whatever, and is time limited. It occurs within the context of your USP. The USP could be considered to be a purpose, compared to the mafia offer, which can be considered to be more of an event.
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Allready 15 years I’ve been searching for my USP, but it lookes like all of the things that differentiates us from the competition are negative items, in my eyes: our poor location in a dead end street-quiet says one, impossible to find says the other, gloomy interior for one, romatic for the other. Asian, thus exotic wife for one, cheap looking for another. Everyday from 08.0o am. busy in catering, closed in the evening, some says, this business is never open, why did I got so tired of it then? An USP: hard to find you know!!
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Ken Varga Reply:
March 30th, 2011 at 1:26 am
@Johan,
If I understand you correctly, you are saying that you get conflicting comments for customers. If so, do an extensive survey of your customers to help you find out what they want. You can let them know that you want to turn your business into a pleasurable experience for them and it would be a great help if they would answer some questions for you. You can even take your best customers out to tea, coffee, or lunch and spend time talking with them. This will help you discover what your business should focus on as it’s main advantage.
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I haven’t been there yet- but I’ve been hearing about it.
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