4 Ways to Deal With Competitors
This article provides you with 4 ways to deal with competitors. You may wish your competitor would go away. But having them around is good for your business. So don’t be afraid of competition. And you have to deal with the situation you are facing advantageously. You may have similar products to your competitors. However, when you start losing business with them, you only find that they offer some great things. Yes, perhaps the products are even better than yours.
4 ways to deal with competitors
Then, it’s time to deal with your competitors. Having competitors focuses your mind, keeps you on your toes and forces you to go that extra mile. You can also learn many things from the successes and failures of your adversary. And, of course, if they have failed at something, you don’t need to go down the same path when they have spent their money proving it would not work. So don’t fear competition – learn to use it to your advantage.
1. Never underestimate your competition
Competitors may vary in size, experience and capabilities, but they have one thing in common. They all want to beat you. Some of your competitors may have more money to play with than you, but the smaller competitors usually turn out to be more of a threat to you. Small companies are nimble, move fast and can hide what they are doing better. Larger competitors have layers of bureaucracy, pulling them down. Read more: 5 Reasons Marketers Fail at Competitive Intelligence & how to Improve
An example of this is that we worked on two projects. One was a fantastic brand with 1000s of employees, and another was a start-up with 20 people in their team—both in FinTech, but not direct competitors. By the time we had gone through the NDA process from the large company, we had completed the entire project for the start-up. Your smaller rivals are in survival mode, and can they may cut corners and take more significant risks. Never underestimate your competitors, especially the little guys.
2. Don’t copy
Some think the best way to compete with their competitors is to copy what you believe they are doing. It must be right because your much bigger competitor appears to be doing it well. Competitive intelligence is not about copying; it’s more about creating more certainty that your path is right.
If you copy, you are just jumping on the latest trend and bandwagon; they are following. And it could be the case that they have bigger budgets to play with and a bigger team to keep busy. They will not have your drive, experience, and passion. So follow your own path, but make sure you know what’s around the corner and behind that bush. Read more: Real-life Competitive Intelligence Stories Unseen Competitors and Tech
3. Don’t play dirty
Competitors can also be partners. Competitors can be a great source of information and sometimes advice. They may play dirty, disrespect, criticise or see you as irrelevant, but so what? If they act like this in their market, they will likely treat their customers similarly. Building you another competitive advantage over them.
4. Don’t Ignore them
You can’t monitor everyone in the market, but you can’t ignore all of them, either. How about defining your competitor landscape something like this:
- Key competitors – Your key competitors.
- Emerging start-ups – The next big thing is those who have the potential to become key competitors.
- Surveillance – Potential competitors with the resources to smash a hole in the market.
If you start losing business to a competitor, find out why. Is their product better than yours? Have they made improvements or made it more attractive? Ignore the competition at your peril. It will be disastrous for your business.
The competition will not disappear. Learn to accept it and take it to your advantage.
We are Octopus. The Global People-Powered Competitive Intelligence Agency.
Outsmart your competition. Make the unknown known. Octopus helps you gain clarity in complex markets. With clients and tentacles around the world, we deliver sharp, actionable competitive intelligence through a blend of deep primary (HUMINT) and secondary research. If you’re looking to make smarter decisions, beat the competition, and reduce uncertainty, we’re the partner you want on your side.
