As a business, you need to make sure that your plan is solid enough that you can remain as relevant as possible. Your brand has been built to compete with others in the same field, and you are able to offer customers a solution like no one else can – it’s why your business is currently doing well. The thing is, when you find that you have been in the same place, you need to look at being more innovative. No business wants to be stuck in a rut, and no business owner wants to find that they are unable to steer their business in a new direction. You want to be able to diversify, and that means looking at what you currently offer, and what you can be better at.
Once you have decided to better your business, it’s time to look at the competition. After all, sharing the same customer pool often means that the same techniques and strategies are used for success. Instead of wasting your time guessing what to do with your business, you should start Competitor Price Monitoring and dive in deep with what your competitors are doing. You want to reach your full potential with your customers, and this is just the first place to begin.Â
There are many things that companies do to be more relevant, competitive and seen on the market. Without implementing these strategies, however, you are going to spend more time wondering what to do instead of actually doing it, and this can lead to you missing the boat entirely. So, with that in mind, we’ve got a few suggestions for you so that you can get going and start beating your competition.
- Revisit Your Jobs. You have a very in depth plan for your business and it was written long before you were successful. In your business plan, you had a strategy that will drive your company vision to success – but you also had a strategy for dealing with the competition. You need to redesign the jobs in your business and encourage more creative thinking. The people you have hired are hired for a reason: they are critical thinkers who are able to contribute to your business, and you need as many strategies as possible to keep these excellent hires on board and working well in your business. You want to have unique perspectives on board, and that means a team of people who will be able to work with you to see what your competition is doing – and whether they are doing it better than you. You want to have people with the right skills in front of the customers, and that means a shuffle to put the strongest people on the team in the front line.
- Be More Diverse. How is your competition offering solutions to customers? Look at how you are currently offering your products and services and the way that you contact customers, and then better it. If you’re on social media, start a YouTube channel. If you’re offering email discounts, create a VIP mailing list so that you can target those who want the best discounts possible. Leadership needs to be strong here, and innovation involves better critical thinking on your part. If you know that you are diversifying your product, then you need to do as your competition is doing and diversify the way in which you offer that.
- Bottom-Up Leadership. It’s nice to think that you are the head of the business and people work for you, but it’s your sales team and customer service agents that are on the front line. They will know the trends of your competition and in service innovation, and they will tell you what they know. If you don’t take that on board, you’re going to fail. The traditional top-down business strategy is not always a strong one, not when you have built-in experts in front of your customers right now. You want to protect your company values, and a big piece of that means getting the right insight from people dealing with customers and those listening to what the competition is doing.
- Encourage Innovation. Does your team have good ideas? Great. They will know what’s going on in the industry and they can equip you with the knowledge you need about your competition. You want to foster this innovative culture and encourage staff to step forward and discuss things with you. You cannot assume you know everything, and it would be arrogant to do as much as that. Instead, realize that you cannot move forward without taking some risks, and start listening to others in your business. Use incentives to help staff to come up with new ideas – encouragement is wonderful when it’s green!
