Eliminating your competition is the easiest way to increase your chances of business success.
And I don’t mean literally eliminate them, in the sense of doing something “bad” or unethical to them.
When I say eliminate, I mean … take them out of your prospect’s consideration for your product or service category.
Make it so your prospects think ONLY of your business, product, or service when they are contemplating making a purchase.
That way you get their business, instead of your competition making the sale.
For example, if you sell earbuds, you want your prospects to only think of your earbuds when they are thinking of buying them.
It’s like Coca-cola when you think of soda, the first thing that probably comes to your mind is “coke.”
And this kind of thing is actually pretty easy to do if your business is not in a competitive industry.
But let’s suppose there are all kinds of businesses selling what you are selling, or filling the same needs you are filling.
How can you make sure your prospects ONLY think of you — and therefore only BUY from you — and not all those other companies?
Answer: By thoroughly understanding those competing businesses and then doing one of two things:
This will separate you from all the other businesses and will make you uniquely qualified in the eyes of your prospect to fill their need.
This usually requires finding a specific market niche you can focus on, or finding a specific product or service only you can fulfill.
Make sure this product has potential for sales and that it’s of value to your prospects, and that none of your competitors can claim it / aren’t currently promoting it.
This puts you in a class of your own and virtually eliminates the competition.
No one does exactly what you do… Or in the quite the way you do it.
This is also known as The Blue Ocean Strategy.
Are there businesses or individuals with whom you could partner, with the goal of referring business to each other?
For example, a wellness coach could partner with a weight watchers clinic or a health club, or a massage therapist.
All of these practitioners are selling improved health and well being, but they can also be positioned as complementary services.
Or, let’s say you are a web site designer and you decide to focus primarily on working with small businesses (in a specific niche).
You could create a partnership with another web site designer who has decided to focus on large corporations.
If you both agree to only take on business that fits your identified niche and to refer business outside your niche to the partner, you both win.
You can partner with other businesses in your exact business in this manner by identifying:
- Niches
- Geographic area served
- By size of organizations served
- By type of clients served
And you can partner with businesses in different categories that fill a similar customer need by agreeing to work together to help each other get customers through cross-promotion.
Find out about “Mergers and Acquisitions” to learn more about this strategy.
There is not a business out there that cannot effectively use one of these two strategies to significantly reduce their competition.
So figure out which strategy fits your business model the best, and make it a priority to eliminate your competition this year.
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Blue Ocean Strategy
What Exactly Are Mergers And Acquisitions?
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