When I think of this topic, I’m reminded of the movie “The Fly.”  Have there ever been times when you wished you were a fly on the wall of your competitor’s office or store?  The good news is that you don’t have to be a fly to gather information about what your competitors are up to.

With a small amount of creativity and a willingness to ask questions, you will be able to gather an enormous amount of information about your competitors business and their marketing strategies. 

Here are a few ways you can accomplish this.

1. Don’t be afraid to ask questions.  If a potential customer tells you that they have gotten lower bids or prices from one of your competitors, ask who it was and what there prices were.  If you ask, they may tell you and if you don’t ask you will never know.
2. Ask your competitor’s customers what made them choose your competitor over you and whether they are completely satisfied with how your competitor treats them. If you find out what they don’t like about your competitor, you can use this to your advantage by offering what your competitor doesn’t do for them.
3. Ask your competitors employees for information whenever you have the opportunity to do so.  Visit them often so that they get to know you.  They might be willing to talk about working conditions, new projects in the works, or even about their income and what they are getting paid.  But remember, you must remind your own employees to be careful about what information they divulge about your company to any outsiders. What you are willing to find out about your competitors, they might want to do the same thing.
4. Make it a habit of getting to know your competitors and/or their employees.  You can meet them at trade shows, industry events or even at local business events such as a Chamber of Commerce meeting. The more you are physically out of your business, the more chances you will get to meet your competitors and others within your industry that know them and can help you with information.
5. How about asking your competitors what they are up to.  Be direct.  Approach them.  If they like to brag about their accomplishments or even show off, they may volunteer a lot of information you can capitalize on and use to build and grow your own business.
6. All of you have suppliers that you get products from.  Ask them for information.  The answers to a simple question like, “How’s business this month,” might give you important clues about the direction your competition is going in or if they are having problems.  With this information you can create a marketing strategy to take advantage of the moment and the opportunity. Often times your suppliers will know more useful information about your competition and share it with you.  So always ask.
7. On the Internet, use free sites like www.compete.com, www.spyfu.com and other snoop sites to learn what your competitors’ keywords might be, etc.  There are also snoop sites that charge a subscription fee.  Some of these sites charge up to $300 per month, depending on how much information you want to gather..  You can find more of these sites using keywords like “tracking competition”, "competitive intelligence", etc.

I’d love to know how you might gather intelligence and information on your competitors, so please add them in the comments section of this blog article.

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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:

1. Do they have testimonials and are they positive?
2. Do they offer discounts?
3. Do they offer a guarantee and do they have a return policy?
4. By comparison, are their prices in line and competitive with yours?
5. Do they offer anything special like free delivery or double your money?
6. Which areas are they negligent in and how can you capitalize on it?
7. How do they promote their business?
8. 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.

Technorati Tags: beating the competition, competitive advantage, competitive intelligence, competitive strategy, USP