How should I approach business competition?
My business sells building materials and many people also sell the same product. How do I win over the market from these guys with my product?
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Jun 5, 2019
You should create a competitive profile of those businesses that compete directly within your target-market geographic reach. You can start by reviewing their websites and glean as much information as you can. From this and other sources, develop a resume of their strengths and weaknesses on the four marketing Ps (product/service, promotion, price, place). This will allow you to take a fresh approach to what you need to do to gain market share - taking advantage of their weaknesses. Pay particular attention to their digital marketing strategy (quality of website, landing page, click funnels, images, testimonials, blogs). Try to offer something that they don't, like a "free" estimate on building material needs for your customers' projects. Add value by becoming seen as an expert in the field and not just a seller of commodity items. This is called value-selling, which doesn't limit you to being the low-priced seller in your market. Review and improve every aspect of your brick-and-mortar retail outlet to ensure that your employees are knowledgeable, courteous and fully engaged with their customers - during and after the sale. Offer timely discounts on materials to move your older inventory or by offering time-sensitive discount coupons on your website or e-mail campaign.
Jun 22, 2019
I'm not so sure anyone cares about your website in this sector; although it’s a good way to capture your image and professionalism, but not a focus. Selling building products is all about boots on the ground and the constant touching of customers. Combine a high touch environment with responsive and knowledgeable phone service and rapid delivery, and you have a home run.
I couldn’t agree more with the Bezos reference, although many brilliant minds long before Bezos have suggested the same – focus on being better today than you were yesterday. Don’t get me wrong, there's no harm with a SWOT analysis or general market intelligence – just remember to focus on your strengths.
When it comes to winning over customers – ask a few customers a simple question – If you could wave a magic wand and have an ideal supplier, what would be different from what you have today? That answer should be taken very seriously and hopefully lead to a few additional questions that will allow you to really understand their needs and pains. Record this or take copious notes when they are speaking.
I can think of three facets of product offerings you’d want to explore.
1. The fundamental products – the products that everyone buys.
2. Product depth in a specific sector – siding, roofing, hardware, insulation, etc.
3. The breadth of offerings – remember that substantial inventory requires space and resources.
To make it all happen, don’t forget that it's all about the people on your team, no matter how small it may be. The difference between good people and great people is exponential, not incremental.
May 21, 2019
Hi Abdoulie,
What are some of the methods you are currently using to stand out among other competitors? How did you first attract the repeat customers that you already have?
Here's an article that I found about differentiating your product/company to make it stand out to potential customers: https://www.business.com/articles/how-to-differentiate-your-product/
Hope this helps!
Jun 6, 2019
Approach the competition like Jeff Bezos: He usually advises you to not focus on the competition. They are not important. What is important is your company, your product, and your customers. If your customers are happy they spread the word about your product which makes it easier to win more customers. If they are unhappy, it doesn't matter what you or your competition does, you are losing anyway. Focus on "what can I do to make my product better than it was yesterday?" and "what can I do to make my customers happier today than they were yesterday?"
This is the only part that matters.
Jun 7, 2019
Good answer! This is the Basecamp approach as well and is outlined in the founder's book "It Doesn't Have to Be Crazy at Work"
Jun 2, 2019
The best way to win over your competitors market is to first attract them to you. To accomplish this create a website or blog and create reviews about each one of your competitors. I'm not talking about 300-word reviews either. I'm talking about 2,000-word articles explaining in detail everything you can find about your competitor.
I know some of you are reading this saying why would I want to do something like that.
Let's say you create reviews of your top 20 competitors and your reviews start ranking on the first page of Google for each one of your competitors. So if someone looks up "XYZ building materials" you show up with a 2,000-word review all about your competitor. In the review, you can have something like comparing this company with other top building material companies side by side.
Most people are looking up the company to make sure they chose the best option. What you want to do is let them compare all the options of each competitor while listing your own company as the best option.
So basically you create a comparison site that allows your competitor's customers to compare options, list your own company as the best option, then link back to your own company website.
Your competitors market will think they made the decision themselves without realizing the owner of the review site is actually owned by you a competitor.
The other benefit of doing this is that the more your competition grows, the more you grow because every time your competition is looked up on Google you get part of that traffic. So imagine how much traffic you can get from ranking on the first page for 20 competitors compared to only ranking for your own company name.
Your review site will also start being seen as the authority in your niche and gain the trust of your competitors market without having to sell them.
Another thing you can do that I don't see anyone doing is become an affiliate of your competitor. By doing this no matter which competitor your review website visitors decides to go with, you still make money.
Instead of trying to compete with your competition, use them to your advantage.
Dec 16, 2019
Find out what they are doing and do it better. If they are marketing themselves in a particular way, or cultivating relationships in a particular way, emulate them and improve on the method. Learn from your competition to get better at what you do.
May 23, 2019
First, attract customers through high-quality products. Give offers and discounts to your products that stand from other competitors product. So we can quickly achieve the target audience. Enhance your business digitally that helps to increase sales.
Jun 23, 2019
Do a competitor analysis. List down 4 to 5 competitors of yours and do an online search. From the website, social media and the brand mention online you can get a fair idea of the competitor's performance. The major client they work with, projects taken up, google reviews, gaps, and improvements which you could try out.
This is the easiest way, you can always do full-fledged competitor research through a marketing agency for obtaining better insights on the markets.
You can also talk to a business consultant, they can guide you too.
Jul 10, 2019
It depends on the business. If you sell these products in a brick and mortar business, personal relationships and positive interactions are key. These are slow and built over time. This can even take over price when it comes to competing with other businesses that are selling the same product.
If you doing more online sales, it becomes much more complicated due to the size of the material and no face to face contact with the customers. Better SEO and a lot of good content on a website and in social media platforms would have to be used to gain more customers and to get a leg up on the competition.
Zuraida Oen
Owner of Rent A Dumpster Dayton
Jul 15, 2019
Understanding
Know your market and detail your customers to develop customer persona. Next, perform a product-market fit to test your product attractiveness. Determine the status of your market, products/services, business model.
Diagnose
Conduct analysis to determine what you need to do to improve marketing, sales, and product/services. Check whether the business model needs to adjust to improve marketing, sales, and products/services. You are selling building materials... I am not sure you trade the materials or you manufacture them. If you trade the material, your USPs (unique selling prepositions) will be around these areas: 1) quality advising on what material best for your customer, 2) ensure timely supplies, 3) proposed alternate material to overcome customers' urgent needs or to meet their budget. How you bundle your services (if you trade the material) to create synergy to add value to customers. Understand your customer personas so that you can understand whether your products/ services can add real values for them.
Prescription
Use basic 4Ps marketing mix to determine your pricing and products/ services strategies.
Pricing link to your profits with a mix of various products and services to offer an irresistible solution to your customers. You can further improve your competitiveness by modifying your business model to improve the servicing of customers and adopt relevant technology to upgrade your CRM function.
Hope the above helps!
Great article!