What everybody ought to know about their competitors

When was the last time you researched your competitors?

It has never been easier for you to research the marketing you are competing against, than it is today. In minutes, you can tell if someone is serious competition to your business or simply a dabbler.

For example:

• You can read their website and tell instantly if it was professionally written or written in-house. You can see the range of services they offer and the promises and guarantees they make in their marketing. In some cases, you can see what they charge too.
• You can check their social media footprint and see if they are using it to broadcast or connect. You can tell a huge amount about the culture of a business by looking at what they think is appropriate to share on social networks.

Over the past 17 years, I have worked with thousands of business owners. Generally, I have found that they have a tendency to under rate the service offered by their competitors.

Here are 2 of the main reasons this happens:

1. The ‘Reality distortion field’

They work so hard on their own businesses and care so passionately about their own clients or customers, that they can’t imagine their competitors being equally committed. This is, of course, a fallacy. The vast majority of business owners work their butts off and try extremely hard to keep their clients or customers happy.

2. Biased reporting

When business owners speak to the former client of a competitor, they often get a very inaccurate picture of their competitor’s business. For example, clients who were fired by their competitors, because they were consistent late payers or simply impossible to work with, will seldom admit it. They will usually say they left because the service was poor. Other times, biased reporting occurs when people tell the business owner what they think the business owner wants to hear. Equally, if the business owner asks a supplier how the competition are doing, the supplier will often give negative feedback, which adds to this reality distortion.

Lots of average – Lots of opportunity

Whilst your competitors will indeed be working hard and caring passionately, the massive majority will be making little real progress. This is why we see so many average businesses out there. Very, very few small business owners do the right things, correctly, when it comes to business development. They are experts at what they do, but dabble with things like marketing and business development.

Here’s why this should matter to you: The moment you decide to take the marketing and development of your business seriously, everything changes.  By getting the expert help you need, so you become one of the tiny minority who does the right things, correctly, you can start running the type of business you have always wanted. You can start earning the income and living the lifestyle that motivated you to start a business in the first place.

The bottom line: There’s a huge amount of potential out there, for those who decide to take the development of their businesses seriously.

Let’s work together and grow your business. To find out more click here!