Articles - Business / Client Dev & Marketing

True story: With high expectations, I recently attended a conference held by a nationally renowned company. Surprisingly, the company’s speakers weren’t very good and most of the curriculum was rehashed information I saw in other programs for years. The company was shocked by the lack of enthusiasm from the attendees.

And we were shocked to hear the company tell us, “But no one else in the country is delivering this training the way we do.” They were operating from a false sense of security. They assumed they had the corner on the market and they were profoundly wrong. And they were big enough and well funded enough to absorb the cost of being wrong. But few small business owners can survive staking their claim on a mistake.

I want you to succeed. I want you to turn your talents and ideas into a profitable business that will out-perform your competition. The question becomes, “How?” Thankfully, the answer is simple: If you want to outshine your competition, you first need to understand them.

Understanding Your Competitors

These are the questions I encourage my clients to answer. Finding the answers will take research and even some reconnaissance but your efforts will be well worth it.

1. Who are your top 3 competitors? (A competitor is anyone in your field or industry who currently takes business from you or has the potential to take business from you.)

2. Why is _____________ my competitor?

3. How much are they dominating the __________ (your city or customer demographic) market?

4. What do they do that is similar to me?

5. Why are they successful?

6. What are their strengths?

7. What are their weaknesses?

8. What do they do that I’m not doing?

9. What do they sell that I’m not selling?

10. What opportunities is my competitor missing?

11. What types of customers is my competition ignoring?

12. To whom is my competition marketing?

13. How is my competition marketing?

14. How could my competitor take me down?

15. What service is my competition not providing?

16. What I am doing better than them?

17. What obvious problems can I solve that my competition is not?

18. What is unique about me and my business that I can leverage into a competitive edge?

Please note that understanding your competition is not the only answer. It is rather, a part of the whole equation. Things like your qualifications, your willingness to Crush It, your financial stability, your employees and your marketing/PR efforts amalgamate to determine your success. So consider this to be a first step.

What do you think? How important is understanding your competition? Is it possible to become too obsessed with knowing your competitors’ every move?

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Biography

Alicia Arenas is the Founder and CEO of Sanera, The People Development Company. After 15 years of Fortune 500 HR leadership experience, Alicia left the corporate world to assist small business owners as a coach and consultant. She is master speaker and facilitator, earned her certification as a Senior Professional in Human Resources in 2002 and has built a reputation around her highly creative and transformative training programs. She specializes in business development, branding, leadership, communication, social media and sales. In 2010 she launched Sanera Camp (www.saneracamp.com), a six week business building “boot camp” for small business owners and sales teams. Alicia has been featured in and has written for the San Antonio Business Journal, her blog www.sanerapdc.com was listed in the Top 10 San Antonio blogs by WOAI and the San Antonio Business Media Public Relationships association named her the best Business Social Media Practitioner in San Antonio. In 2009, Alicia was one of five bloggers selected from around the country to audit the Disney Institute leadership courses and provide feedback to the Institute's executive team.

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