SCORE
YOUR BUSINESS GOALS
-- Oct. 15/07
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In
This Issue…
-
The
Importance of Competition
-
Tip:
How to Become More Competitive
-
Humour:
Dealing With Money
===================================
The
Importance of Competition
=======================================
For
one reason or another, some business leaders don't feel
the need
to
compete.
One
of my clients told me that she did not want to
compete with
her
direct competitors, but preferred to compete with her indirect
competitors. She
somehow felt that it was better to work with her
direct
competitors to sway the clients away from the indirect
competitors,
so
that the pool of clients in her industry would increase.
This would help
both
her and her direct competitors to grow.
Maybe
she had a point. If she helped to grow her
industry, then the industry
could
attract more attention. More clients would probably sign
up, and more media
attention would be seen on the merits of her industry.
Meanwhile,
though, she was getting pounded by the direct
competitors.
Her
direct competition had as many as twelve times more clients
than
her
business did.
It
took an outside pair of eyes to see that her efforts may
have helped
more
clients leave her indirect competitors, but that her efforts
of non-
competition
was serving to help her direct competitors attract many more
clients
than it was helping herself.
When
she accepted that she was competing, whether she wanted to
or
not, her business was really able to pick up.
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Tip:
How to Become More Competitive
=======================================
Focus
on doing your absolute best. A business needs money, and
thus
clients,
to survive. While there may be an abundance of clients
out there
for
both you and your competitors, the clients will choose based
on their
own
biases. If you're not doing your best to show why
they should choose
you,
they will naturally pick the competitor who puts the best foot
forward.
Put
your best foot forward by explaining to your customers the
benefits of
working
with your company. Show them the outcomes of working
with
you,
not just your standard operating procedures. (think
benefits, not
features).
Meet
with your customers as often as possible. Learn what
they value.
There's
a world of difference between giving them what they say they
need,
and giving them what you think they need.
Raising
the level of your industry is a noble thing. But
outsiders will
listen
to you much more intently if you're the market leader.
Once
you're
the market leader, your direct competitors will listen much
more
to you when you propose a coalition.
==========================
Humour:
Dealing with Money
=============================
“ Just
about the time you think you can make both ends meet,
somebody
moves the ends ”,
Pansy Penner
============
Hidden
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==============
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your
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