What Your Competitors Are Telling You

by Kenneth Vogt
Content Crooner Inc.

Competition is the driving force that keeps business innovative and forward thinking. Without the collective unconscious that competition creates, the market forces that fuels money, resources and labor for business become complacent. Using your competition as a guiding force and a basis for learning is the key to great business strategies. You must use your instincts to help grow evergreen markets for new products and services.

Anyone who thinks that they want to eliminate their competition is on a very slippery slope philosophically. If a business forms a sole proprietary monopoly, at best their product quality will decrease and at worst their consumers will look elsewhere for alternatives. Either way monopolies close off the ability to expand your business market, which eventually will be the downfall of your company financially.

Competition teaches you to be more efficient with system operations, to be more creative and less marginal in your approach to business. Whatever you are doing only so-so, your competition is already planning to take advantage of. Your inherent weaknesses are their opportunities to advance. Conversely, it is wise to observe your competition closely and you will find out what you are not doing well.

Competition gives us a baseline for comparisons. When a competitor sells the same products, it is important to see which ones they are pricing differently or heavily marketing towards consumers. Your consumers do this every day, believe it. Simple things may become clear, for instance your sales of a certain product may be low or nonexistent due to their amazingly slashed prices on the same product. Also if they discontinue a similar product, how does it impact your current sales on that item? These are all important things to observe.

The wise business man always leads the market. If your competition is a lamb, do you take the approach of being a lion or a shepherd? Lions devour the market until there is nothing left; by eliminating the competition they conquer all the lands. Soon they end up needing to devour their own resources and eventually the lion starves to death. Shepherds want the lambs to prosper, but also dictates their growth by tending to them through each season. Competition is like a flock, if you are the leader you have great influence on the whole. If you force your hand on your competition, they will turn and be forced to fight against you. If you observe the flock and allow them freedom, you will gain insights and figure how to use the landscape for profit.

The more money in the market, the bigger the profit for everyone. Expansion is the key to growth, but is limited in one way. You must ask yourself: if I were my competition, what would I do to bring me down in the market? Observation of the competitor must also include that they are capable of pulling the kill switch on your place in the market. So look for this and learn from it well. It is best to invent the weapon of your own destruction and then you can keep it under control. Those that wait for it to be invented will be the ones that it is tested on.

So when trying to learn how to expand in business and make it profitable, ask yourself what your competitors are telling you.

Kenneth Vogt is CEO of Content Crooner, a high quality content distribution service that gets you more targeted web traffic. Discover how to create quality content that drives targeted traffic to your web site in our free report.

Article submitted Wednesday, November 23, 2011 & read 9 times.

Leave your comments through Real Cash Cow:

No comments yet.

0-0-0-0-0-ADSO

Most Recent