How to beat the competition. A few simple tips

In business, there are always competitors (unless you're doing something no one else can). They are eager to steal your customers and take a share of your profits. Naturally, every businessman wants to be better than his rivals. What can you do to keep and increase the number of customers? You can lower your prices, of course. But what if your competitor also makes his product or service cheaper? You can't keep lowering your prices, because you'll end up losing money and going bankrupt.

To be guaranteed to beat your competitors, you need to be better at three things:

Marketing;
Product;
Sales.

First, you need to understand how good your competitor(s) are at each of these things. This means you need a competitive analysis. Its main purpose is to find the key metrics of your competitors and compare them with your own. In today's blog from consulting firm Binomkraft, we talk about how to deal with your competitors and become the best. BinomCraft company managers advise on how to tackle the competition and become the best.

Study

The first step is to analyse the company's competitors according to two criteria: "what they do well" and "what they do badly". For example, you've noticed that your competitors use poorly designed flyers and banners in their advertising. So your creative needs to be better. A competitor is actively promoting their business on social networks, while you only use contextual advertising? So you need to focus your efforts on promotion through targeted advertising, so that your target audience learns about you on social networks.

You must also analyse the product itself: buy the product or use the service. Thanks to the "Tested on yourself" method, you will be able to observe your feelings when interacting with another company, its service and the quality of the product. This is the method used by Binom Craft managers.

Systematisation
The second step is to organise the information. A simple spreadsheet may be all you need. Enter all the data you have been able to find out about the competitor's marketing, sales and product. But this information is not enough. Analyse social media reviews of other companies in your sector and find out what customers complain about most. This will help you understand how you can improve your work to keep customers happy. You can also look up useful techniques used by your competitors that consumers respond to positively.

Plan
The final step is to identify and implement steps to improve your company's performance. Go through the list you made in the previous steps. Determine which solutions need to be implemented immediately and which can be implemented later. Set deadlines.

Conclusions
You don't have to be two or five times better than the competition. A small advantage in small things is enough.

For example:

Banners are 5% more clickable;
Returning calls within an hour, not the next day;
meeting delivery deadlines, etc.

Most importantly, remember that every business is about solving people's problems. Your job is to do this better than anyone else in your market or location.

Make competitive analysis a regular practice. Keep track of how your competitors are changing: what they are doing better and what they are doing worse. Gather feedback on both your competitors and your business. Interview and survey your customers to find out what they are happy with and what they would like to see improved. This is the only way to make a better product, provide a better service and stay ahead of your competitors. The managers of the BinomCraft trading company wish you inspiration.