If you don't know your competition, you don't know anything!

Do you truly know your competition? If you aren’t investing time to keep up on what your competition you are putting your business at risk. Researching your competition takes diligence and constant effort. As an owner, you need to know your company’s strengths, your competitor’s weaknesses, and how to capitalize on both aspects in your sales strategy. The obvious metric is price, however many consumers and purchasers are motivated by more than price and you need to know your customer’s pain points to sell affectively against your competition.

If you have a true understanding of your competition but do not have a decisive strategy to sell against them then you may need to re-evaluate your business plan. For example, I have a client in manufacturing that makes a specific part for defense contractors. This part is a precision piece that needs strict quality, quick turnaround, and competitive pricing. Now as an owner in this market, if you are not able to improve upon what is important to your customer then you will not be able to take business from the competition. In this case, my client was able to generate a quicker turnaround time and better quality. Although their price was slightly higher, they won the business since their guaranteed failure rate on the part was significantly less than the competitors. In the precision manufacturing industry, this is a key component and can lead to overall lower production costs.

If you can’t beat your competition, then you need to focus to a market where you can succeed.