10 Ways to Stay Ahead of Competition in Business

10 Ways to Stay Ahead of Competition in Business

Business competition is inevitable, and it can be so fierce at times, especially when you have very strong industry contenders. Everyone wants to make an edge in the industry which is the main cause for competition. As a new startup, surviving in a competitive industry might be a difficult task. But who says you can’t, in fact, you can survive competition in your business and even stay ahead of your competitors with these simple tricks:

1. Know your competition: recognizing your competition helps you know how to strategize. Know who your competitors are. Is it the guy next-door, or the woman next -street. Know what they are offering and identify them as this will help you in whatever strategy you want to pull. It will also help you to recognize the kind of area in which you are competing in and help you pull ways of differentiating yourself.
2. Know your Customers: know your customers, don’t assume to know them. Customers have great expectations and they expect you to satisfy all of their expectations. Yet, their expectations can also change which could make it sometimes difficult for you to satisfy them. This is where knowing them comes into place. Know your customers and what they want and satisfy them to that end. The best way to know your customers is by interacting with them. Build a good customer relationship and let them talk about your business. Accept feedbacks and responses. Know what customers want. Whether they want a reduction in the price of your product or they want an increase in quality. Don’t just assume this is what they want. Don’t assume they want a reduction in price whereas they would be willing to pay more for a more quality product. Know your customers as this is one of the ways of getting overshadowed by competition. If you don’t know your customers, there’s no way you can satisfy them and once you don’t satisfy them, they’ll be on their heels running straight to your competitors.
3. Be different: make yourself unique. Let customers see you as being different from your competitors. Don’t wait until someone asks what makes you different before you tell them. In fact, you need not be asked why you are different, show it instead. Let customers see every reason to choose you over your competitors. Stand out, be unique. Customers want something different, they want something unique and outstanding and this is a way you can get to them. Create a unique personality. This will draw customers to you and your competitors might even end up emulating you. ( It doesn’t matter if you are a new startup or an old one). Be different!
   

   10 Ways to Stay Ahead of Competition in Business

4. Market yourself: don’t just market your product alone, market yourself too. You are the face of your product so market yourself. Tell people what you do, tell them what you are into and the services you offer. Tell them how you can be of great help to them. Tell them how beneficial your product can be . Be “convincingly convincing”. Make use of various media to market yourself and your product. Use social media like Facebook, Instagram and the likes and do not neglect offline strategies too. Some customers are not on social media, but they can just go around and see your business flyer somewhere on the street or your bill board boldly placed by the roadside. So market yourself. And while marketing yourself, endeavor to make use of both online and offline tools. Don’t be bias.
5. Develop a USP image: USP stands for Unique Selling Point. By updating your USP image, it makes you more attractive to customers. If your USP is your business environment, you might have to decorate to a very high taste as a business environment is one of the things that attract customers. Your competitors might not see this as being necessary, don’t be too stingy by imitating them. Decorate your business environment. Redesign your flyers, design your business cards and the likes. All of these attract customers to you.
6. Look after your customers: put in mind that your existing customers are also targets to your competitors just like theirs are to you. So in order not to lose your customers, ensure you are responsive to their needs. Look after them, check up on them from time to time through phone calls, SMS, emails etc. And do not relent in giving them the best experiences they can ever get.

 

Read Also: How to Know Upfront whether Your Startup will make Profit

 

7. Extend your market: you might not know what surprise lays in wait for you until you’ve extended your market. If you have been selling offline, you might want to give online sales a trial. This is just you one step ahead of your competitors. You see what they don’t see. By extending your market, you also have an extended customer base and profit. Although you also stand a higher risk but the whole of business is all about risk.

8. Develop new products: expand your offer by developing new products that customers will be interested in. For instance, if you sell garri, it is definite that you will have contenders, but in order to outsmart all of these contenders, you could add sales of groundnut to your business. Your customers will find it interesting as groundnut is a good complement for garri.

9. Be unpredictable: be an entrepreneur with unpredictable qualities as this will make it difficult for your competitors to get at you. If you do things the same old way you’ve always done it, it would be easy for competitors to detect your strategy and outsmart you. Always develop new strategies.

10.Learn from your competitors: as much as you want to make huge sales and stay ahead of your competitors, you can also learn from them. Look at the things they do and the way they do them which are pleasing to you. Refurbish them all to your taste and implement them in your business. It will help.

Keep the future in mind: having the future in mind helps you strive at all cost to be successful. By adapting to new technologies and innovations, by learning and creating strategies, you’ll keep your business ahead of competition.

 

 

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