What is competitor positioning, why it’s important and what to look for?
Competitor positioning is a strategy to differentiate yourself from a competitors offering. This article asks what is competitor positioning, why it’s important and what to look for?
Competitive positioning emphasises the unique features of a product or service. Enabling you to target a market segment with a quality offering. Or pricing a product or service lower than your competitors. It is important to understand your competitors positioning too.
The situation of your sales team
You and your sales team are competing head-to-head with competitors for every account. And there isn’t any uncontested competitive space anymore. You’ll always have to beat someone to get wins in your business sector.
Your sales team are up against the intense competition. They must approach prospects and current customers heavily armed with competitor intelligence. It doesn’t matter in what format as long it’s accurate and easily congestible. They need to quickly and easily understand what a competitor is offering. And also know how they position that offering and how their product’s service stacks up against it. Easy to understand. And not because salespeople are stupid. They are busy, and if they dont understand something, they will move on. The format could be a battlecard and have as much detail as possible in as few words as possible.
Useful insight
The sort of insight that is useful to you includes competitor product descriptions. This will consist of their features and benefits. And just as importantly, the advantages and weaknesses of their products. Then detail how they communicate their sales in the form of their:
- Words
- Marketing
- Website
- Brochures
- Social media
What is Competitor Analysis?
Competitor Analysis evaluates your competitors. To understand and compare them to your way of doing things. To know their current and future direction, how they do business, their strengths and weaknesses, why customers buy from them to increase your competitive advantage.
How they cover and present the tech they use and how important they think customer service is. And look at the tone of voice when they present what they do. Understand how they sell their products and what they emphasise in their message. Do they talk about their technology and go down the quality customer service road? Do they sell direct or via partners?Are they selling to a niche market by highlighting the quality of the product? How comprehensive are their products or services? Or are they getting stuff out their door and promoting how cheap they are? Are they seen as specialists and experts, or is their offering just run of the mill?
Pricing strategy
Then look at their pricing strategy. Are they selling the product on price or quality? And what’s the structure of their pricing? Is it flat rates, hourly rates, hidden costs and optional extras? What deals do they like to offer, and do they offer a discount for volume orders? Are they any areas of their pricing strategy you can exploit? How does the company come across in your dealings with them? Do their customers agree?
- Are they professional or sloppy?
- Are they old fashioned or able to think creatively?
- Or are they flexible and easy to change?
- Or are they stuck in their ways and reference their business terms as a defence mechanism?
Details to consider
So, in summary, looking at competitor positioning, you need to consider these:
Product
- Features
- Benefits
- Advantages
- Weaknesses
- How they compare
Sales messaging
- Technology
- Customer service
- Quality
- Price
- Expediency
- Breadth
- Specialist
Pricing
- Structure (hourly rates, flat fees, extras)
- Sales incentives
- Volume discounts
- Strategies
Company image
- Professional
- Creative
- Flexible
What is competitor positioning, why it’s important and what to look for?
In conclusion, a competitor positioning is a key strategy. To be used to differentiate a product or service from those of its competitors. This article asked what is competitor positioning, why it’s important and what to look for? By emphasising the unique features of an offering, a potent competitive edge is created. In order to be successful, you must continually evaluate your positioning strategy. To ensure that it remains relevant and appealing to consumers.
