HOW DO YOU STACK UP AGAINST YOUR COMPETITORS? Aren’t you curious????

Ever ask yourself where your company stands when it is compared by a prospective customer to others?  Well it is more than likely that even your customers are asking these same questions.  And if you’re not savvy to what they learn and how you compare against the competition, you are laying yourself “open” for lost business – or – worse, a compromised market position.

This article is broken out into two sections:  The Research/Data Accumulation – and – Drawing Conclusions From The Results

THE RESEARCH/DATA ACCUMULATION PHASE

WHY DO A COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS?

1.    Forecast competitor’s strategies
2.    Planning your proactive or reactive strategies
3.    Understanding competitors’ behavior
4.    Planning our behavior to successfully compete
5.    Targeting and capturing consumer and market

IS THERE A PROCESS MY COMPANY CAN FOLLOW TO GATHER THIS INFORMATION AND POSITION MYSELF TO USE IT?
Marketing and sales executives understand, too well, how important it is for the company to know and understand its market position, strengths, weaknesses, competitive position and advantages.  They get it a variety of different ways:

1)    Management gets the field salesforce involved with existing customers– sometimes by itself and other times working with customer service.  In this case, the marketing/sales management team is asking the salesforce to give it on-going feedback in a structured fashion.
2)    As new accounts are being pursued, field salespeople are asked to gather information on targeted prospect’s existing relationships with competitors, their service levels, strengths/weaknesses (subtly), price points (if possible) to identify patterns of behavior that provide “openings” for the company.
3)    The company’s Management Information System (MIS) is “milked for information” – to help identify customers whose pattern of business has changed from a previous period (year/quarter).  Those customers receive either a phone call from management – or – or a field sales call (scheduled) where the “change” is discussed and, if problems arise, is addressed and resolved.
4)    This info is then documented sometimes in something as simple as a MSExcel spreadsheet – or – in the form of a formal report generated by the marketing/sales department on a scheduled basis.
5)    And management evaluates the information on a scheduled basis – certainly no less than every 2-3 months – more often if a pattern of lower than expected sales starts to show.  The information then is put into a format that can be discussed in a meeting of senior managers.
6)    The meeting takes place and decisions relating to the company’s market position are decided.  Then the tough things start.  To convert what the company learns into meaningful changes that will translate into improved sales performance and enhanced market position.

So what information do we need from the marketplace?  Try these questions as a potential starting point:

KEY BUSINESS QUESTI

YOUR BUSINESS    COMPETITOR A        – COMP B -         COMP  C               COMP D
Who are you?

What business
are you in?

Who is your customer?

What do you sell?  Products/services?

What problems do you
solve for your customers?

What would your customers
say about your business?

Strengths & weaknesses in the market

SWOT ANALYSIS – 1 For Your Company 1 For Each Competitor

STRENGTHS      WEAKNESSES       THREATS  OPPORTUNITIES
Company image vs competitors image
Market distribution and
channel
Reputation for quality of products & services
Familiarity with market

Market size & growth

Pricing strategies

New product ideas

Product development

Product availability

Positioning

Advertising & promotion

Sales force

Sale after service

Public relationships

COMPEITIVE WARFARE STRATEGIES

Defensive:
1.    Only the market leader should consider playing defense.
2.    The best defensive strategy is the courage to attack you.
3.    Strong competitive moves should always be blocked

Offensive:
1.    The main consideration is the strength of the leader’s position.
2.    Find a weakness in the leader’s strength and attack at that point.
3.    Launch the attack on as narrow a front as possible.

Flanking:
1.    A good flanking move must be made into an uncontested area.
2.    Tactical surprise ought to be an important element of the plan.
3.    The pursuit is just as critical as the attack itself.

Guerrilla:
1.    Find a segment of the market small enough to defend.
2.    No matter how successful you become, never act like the leader.
3.    Be prepared to bug out at a moment’s notice.

COMPETITOR

DEFENSIVE             OFFENSIVE              FLANKING             GUERRILLA

Section 2 of our article,