Know Your Competitors
Last week we talked about how important knowing your product is and how we have control over that. Today we are going to talk about something that we don’t have any control over but need to know, nonetheless. It would be foolish to believe that there is only one company selling bottled water. There are countless companies that want to capitalize on the demand for bottled water these days. While having the best product is still the best way to obtain and maintain market share, it is certainly not the only way.
Knowing you competitors is much more than knowing where they are located and roughly what there prices are. It entails a great deal more than that, you should know their philosophies, strategies, advertising and marketing plans. If they are good at what they do, then you can bet they know all of this about you. Go into a grocery store sometime and see if one soft drink is having a sale and if they are see what type of sale. Next go to their rival’s display, chances are that they are also running some type of special. That is not an accident, I promise you. Both companies spend a lot of time and money researching their competitors and use that information to better market their product.
It is not necessary to have a large budget to pull this off, it can simply be done by shopping in your competitors store because you can gather all kinds of information by simply taking a stroll. Some of the things you may learn include: upcoming or current sales, current prices, store layout and product presentation. You may also learn a little about their customer service practices and standards. All this knowledge is useful in more ways than one. For example, if you find out that you are already better than they are, then you leave feeling good about the job you are doing. Secondly, you may learn something, and there is no harm in admitting that someone may do something a little better than you but there is harm if you choose to accept that as a way of life. Don’t forget to use the information you gather and become better yourself. Don’t lose market share because you don’t know what your competitor is offering down the street. You may not be able to control what your competition does but you can control what you know about them. You can control what you do with yourself and/or your store.
FINAO - Brad Huisken - President, IAS Training
