My competitors are flooding the market, so how can we be more competitive?

My competitors are flooding the market, so how can we be more competitive?

In this article, we ask if my competitors are flooding the market, so how can we be more competitive? The answers are based on offering brilliant customer experience, value and the targeting of poorly served markets. Here are a few ways to stand out from your competitors in. Ways create a more decisive competitive advantage. With the world opening up to the global competition, an online retail store in deepest Peru can compete in the same field as the Amazon’s of this world. 

It’s very likely that customers wouldn’t see you when looking for what you do. Overlooking you unless you offer them a reason not to. This is why it’s critical to deliberately try to be more competitive. To stand out. And it’s not about lowering your prices and hoping the customer will choose you over them. Just because you are cheaper. They will still not see you or go elsewhere when your competitors cut their pricing. And I don’t know about you but running a business is hard enough without losing money on a deal. Especially so just, so my competitor doesn’t win. 

Competitive advantage is about making a difference to your customers. So how can you stand out in the marketplace without selling your soul to the devil? Here’s how you can stand out in your market.

Let me tell you a story

Everyone has a story. People love stories as they connect to you on a personal level. Richard Branson, Innocent Drinks, Tony’s Chocolate, Apple, and Dyson all tell stories. And some of them are true! 

• Think about how you do what you do
• Why did you set up the business?
• What’s driving you and your team?
• What are your company values?

An extension of this promoted what you do for the community and the causes close to your heart. All this storytelling will make a customer more inclined to be loyal to your business. Tony’s chocolate tells us they are not a chocolate maker. They are a cause which also sells chocolate bars. Their cause is “to make chocolate 100% slave free”. An excellent example of a great story. But if you claim a cause, you need to live and breathe it. You need to be genunine. No virtual signalling, green washing or sports washing. 

Differentiation

Ask, What makes me different from my competitors? Do you offer a personalised bespoke service to each customer? Hand make your products? Use only the finest ingredients? Make sure you tell people how and why you are different. Clearly tell the world why you are different. Make yourself stand out and make them remember you. 

Also, take a look at how your competitors differentiate themselves. Continually monitoring but not obsessing about your competition. If it becomes necessary change your differentiation and message. This monitoring and change must be ongoing to allow you to grow and beat your competitors.

Find your niche and create clear messaging

If you are struggling to define your differentiator, try looking for a niche in your market. Once you have found a niche, look to see if you can develop clear and simple messaging to stand out from the rest.

We have recently developed our Competitive Intelligence offering message. From explaining what Competitive Intelligence is and defining the processes. We have always tried to make the message as simple as possible and avoid being seen as gurus and know-it-alls. There’s a place for this in Competitive Intelligence, but it’s not us. A combination of North West England and the United States.

How we have done it

So, we created a three-step that solution to clearly define what we do. As follows:

Octopus Competitive Intelligence. We are a unique global Competitive Intelligence agency designed to:

– Deliver competitive advantage
– Help you beat your competitors
– Increase certainty in your decisions

We do this by using a three-step solution:

1. Determine what it is that you really need, then create questions to answer

2. Find the insight and answer the questions and offer options open to you

3. Decide what and how you are going to achieve this

We are not run-of-the-mill. We don’t want you to be amazed by our creative processes. Nor our in-depth experience in putting the word strategy into every paragraph.
We want you to be amazed by the insightful and useful answers we find for you. The insight that will help reduce your uncertainty when making decisions. And improve your competitive advantage.

This message may be right or wrong, and we will tweak it to improve it on an ongoing basis. So when others copy what we are saying, we are already on a different page.

Defining what you do well in a niche allows you to communicate your message clearly. So the customers wanting what you are good at are drawn to your offering.

Do something you love

And it makes it simpler for you because you are doing or selling something you are good at. And the more you do it, the better you get at it. Your reputation grows stronger. 

When looking for what you do better than anyone else, your message is a clear and obvious choice.

It’s about people

People buy off people. In our game of Competitive Intelligence, there has been a move to platform technology. Most miss the point that those using the tech and thinking about the data are people. 

People need to do Intelligence and insight. Platforms and tech have a place in Competitive Intelligence but more so do people.

How you do something with the processes and features of your product are important. They are essential to delivering better, consistent, faster customer service. But unless it affects what you give customers, they don’t need to know your procedures and processes. 

You can create a competitive advantage by remembering to put the customer first. Ahead of processes and procedures. They should never get in the way of a customer. 

Flexibility

Empower your teams to be flexible with customers’ needs and requests. Obviously, not when it comes to legal and safety regulations. But the daft rules that could get in the way of building a relationship with a customer. Blindly following your policies and procedures isn’t a winner or a competitive advantage. 

Allow your teams to see an opportunity. They should do the right thing for your customers and take it. This will provide you with happier customers. And a team feeling they are doing something worthwhile. 

Provide value

Ultimately, it’s about creating more value in a customer’s mind. More value than going to your competitors. To keep winning more deals and keep customers coming back for more. Defining and providing value. You want your customers to believe they’ve got their money’s worth. You need to spend time thinking about and researching what the value you provide is. Speak to your customers and see what they think. Ask what a customer really needs and wants. What problems are you resolving for them? Be consistent and focus on quality to start building a substantial competitive advantage.

Never get complacent. As soon as you do, a new competitor will come along and change the market. Improve on your message and take your customers. Always look to improve your competitive advantage. Transform your message, and enhance your products and services. Provide the value you claim every time you interact with customers. Make them want to return to you all the time. Being more competitive will assist you in maintaining or growing your market share. It isn’t hard, but it does take time, research, commitment and consistency.

My competitors are flooding the market, so how can we be more competitive?

In conclusion, if your competitors are flooding the market, you must be better than them. The best way to be more competitive is to offer a brilliant customer experience, value, and be unique. And also tell the world about what you are doing. Don’t try to compete on price alone. Instead, focus on creating a superior customer experience that your competition cannot match. And find your niche and make Competitive Intelligence a core competence in your business. 

Art by Jonathan Ford

Free review

We help brands, business owners, investors, CEO’s, marketing director and product management teams improve their competitive advantage. And don’t forget the offer of a free no-obligation review of your Competitive Intelligence needs. Just pop your email in below and we will get in touch with you to see how we can impact your competitive advantage.