Posts Tagged ‘handling competitors’
How to Separate Your Products From Your Competitors - Even If They Are Exactly The Same
Monday, April 28th, 2008
Let’s face it; the majority of products being sold on the market compete with other products that are very similar or even identical, except for perhaps a color or logo change. So, if your product is having trouble competing based on price, features or benefits, then take it a step further. Use your audience’s emotional side to help them identify with your company and its products.
It’s hard to compete when your competitors are all using the same selling points as you. But the difference will be that your competitors are most likely ending the sell there, while you’ll soon have all the information you need to take your promotions to the next level. Here’s how:
Get customers to visualize your product - Now, this goes beyond photographs or videos, it happens by using descriptive text so engaging that your readers cant help but picture your product in their head. Instead of saying “Handmade nut cluster chocolates”, try “Smooth ribbons of rich milk chocolate drizzled over chunks of honey-glazed almonds.” The trick is to tap into the reader’s emotions - whether that’s excitement, fear, nostalgia, etc. Once you have triggered that emotion in your reader, you have then succeeded in bringing them on a personal level with your product.
Talk about your company - One of the biggest reasons that website visitors leave a site is because they are unsure if the website is safe. Give your potential customers reassurance by giving them details about your company and as much contact information as possible. The goal here is to make your visitors feel safe and secure. With identity theft running rampant, website customers want to be certain that they are buying from a real company and not some front for an underground scam.
Let past customers do the selling - It’s no secret that those online testimonials can many times make or break a sale. If you don’t have any unsolicited testimonials from customers, then you can use a marketing email to reach past customers with a quick survey and comments section - perhaps offering them a store gift certificate for filling it out. If you are a merchant with Yahoo! shopping, then check your ratings - there’s a good chance that past customers wrote a store review for you. You can also elaborate for a paragraph or two about each customer’s experience, and then use their actual quote somewhere in the middle. That will make even a short one-sentence quote seem bigger and more convincing.
The best thing about using these tactics to stay ahead of the competition is that most retailers never use this type of selling, or at least they don’t use it effectively. The key is in knowing your target market and how to reach them. You can try experimenting with different approaches to see which one your customers really respond to most. So don’t let the fact that your product isn’t proprietary, new or unique get in the way of your company staying on top of the competition. Good luck!
Tags: advice, Carrie Hinkel, handling competitors, make your products stand out, Marketing, Marketing Your Business, tips
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Let the Fur Fly - How to Handle Your Competition
Friday, February 29th, 2008
Unless you are one in a billion, your small business will have competition. Even if you are that one-in-a-billion company, as soon as people know you exist, someone else will try to do the same thing and you will have competition.
Face it - competition is a fact of business life. What you need to know is how to handle competition and keep the upper hand.
Know Your Focus
What is your business’ focus? Hopefully, you have selected a niche market you know well. The way to success over your competitors is to know your market, customers and trends better than they do.
If you are not at the top of your niche, why not? Figure out what you are lacking. It could well be you are not on top of the trends as much as you would like, or you are behind in the software or education that you need to take your business to the next level.
If this is the case, then it’s time to catch up. If it’s trends research you’re lacking, do the research that you need to do to stay on top of your industry. If you are using outdated software, it’s time to bite the bullet and spend the money to upgrade.
If you need further education, sign up for classes and start learning - and guess what? The Small Business Administration offers free online small business courses !
Have a Marketing Plan
One of the ways to beat out your competition is to make sure more customers know about you and want to spend their money with you. This generally means doing some kind of marketing. That said, marketing - especially without a plan - can be expensive.
Start with research. Look at other companies in your field, especially the "big dogs". Find out what they did right with their marketing and advertising campaigns. Also take note of what they did wrong.
In today’s world, one of the best ways to bring in customers is with a strong Internet presence. Today’s customers often start shopping before they ever leave home. They look for the items they want to purchase online; then they compare prices and materials, and generally walk into a store just to hold the item and make the purchase.
If you don’t have an Internet presence, you are selling your business short.
Get Your Name Out There
Are you a part of your local Chamber of Commerce? If not, you could be missing out on a lot of selling potential. Chamber members go to other members when they’re ready to do business.
If your competition is a member, they are getting first dibs on local customers. By also being a member of the Chamber, you can get this kind of attention - and keep an eye on the company your competition is keeping.
Additionally, you should try to get more involved in community events. The more your company name is attached to events, the more people recognize you as a legitimate business that cares about the community. This will translate into an increase in sales.
Be 007
You should always keep an eye on what your competition is up to. Watch their marketing techniques and see if they are working. If they are advertising regularly in a particular magazine or newspaper section, consider placing similar ads. Make sure you make yours more inviting.
While you may wish that your business were the only one in its field, competition is not always a bad thing. It keeps you on top of your game and in a mindset to constantly reinvent and improve your business.
Constant improvement is a sure-fire way to keep your customers coming back and bring new customers through your doors.
Tags: advertising, advice, competition, Growing Your Business, handling competitors, Leeia Ladipoh, Marketing, Marketing Your Business, small business, tips
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Putting Good Business Ethics into Practice
Tuesday, February 5th, 2008
The biggest threat against the survival of any business isn’t the competition…it’s the company’s understanding and practice of good business ethics. It’s hard to turn on the news without hearing about yet another business scandal that drove a company under. But it’s not just the big mega-corporations that are in danger of falling prey to bad business ethics. Small businesses are just as vulnerable. Think about it - would you give your business to a store you saw overcharging for items at the register? No, and I bet you would tell others about that experience too. Negative word of mouth spreads fast - especially in the age of emails and text messaging!
What does it mean to have good business ethics?
Having good business ethics means that with a choice of right or wrong, you choose right - even if it means lower profits or less productivity. It means putting employees and customers before the company’s bottom line. Having good business ethics isn’t the same thing as following the law. Ethics goes beyond the law - just because a certain business practice is legal doesn’t mean it’s the "morally right" thing to do. Here are some examples of common business ethics issues in several divisions of a company:
Human resources - The way a company treats its employees (and potential employees) is a gray area for many businesses. In human resources, having good business ethics means treating others with the utmost respect. Ethics involving human resources are important issues that could result in a big lawsuit against your company if they are not taken seriously.
* Examples: Discrimination - (based on race, gender, religion, weight, or attractiveness), sexual harassment
Finances - This is the most common form ethics scandal - think Enron and Worldcom. For many companies, profits are always the most important factor - and that means at any cost. That kind of thinking can quickly result in a company’s downfall or even prison time for those who participated in the wrongdoing.
* Examples: Insider trading, misleading financial analysis, hiding finances, trying to avoid paying taxes
Marketing - Good business ethics means always thinking in your customers’ best interests. If you are proud of your company and your products or services, you shouldn’t have to scam or trick your customers into buying from you. Think how you like to be treated as a customer and bring those guidelines into your own business.
* Examples: Bait and switch, price skimming, pyramid schemes
Production - In recent times, following bad business ethics in production (for example, using lead paint in toys) has given many companies bad reputations, early closings and expensive recalls. Trying to save money in production by using products that could potentially be harmful to others (or the environment) is not always against the law, but it is always unethical.
* Examples: Inferior goods, harmful ingredients, product testing procedures (for instance, on animals).
So, how can you ensure that your business is practicing good business ethics?
If your company has employees, it’s important that the owners begin practicing good business ethics right away. If employees see the owners cutting corners, then they will see that as acceptable behavior and will most likely begin to follow the same procedures. The next step is to create a document called a Code of Ethics - this should cover every aspect of your business, and determine what’s acceptable and what’s not acceptable. If you are unsure of where to start, you can Google "code of ethics" and take a look at the documents that other companies have created. Then, distribute your business’ Code of Ethics to every employee and schedule an in-depth staff meeting to talk about it and to let the staff know that the company is serious about practicing good business ethics. You may also want to go as far as creating an Ethics Board within the company. This would consist of a few employees who would regularly meet to discuss the company’s current practices and what could be done better.
Practicing good business ethics means you can feel better about your company; knowing that you are doing the best for your customers and your employees. You might just find that the positive word of mouth results in more customers and higher profits!
Tags: business ethics, Carrie Hinkel, customer loyalty, Growing Your Business, handling competitors
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Avoid Losing Your Customers to Your Competition
Monday, October 8th, 2007
Q: I am worried that one of my employees may want to leave soon and go to work for one of my competitors. Even worse is that I think he may try and take some of my best customers (or a list of my customers) along with him when he goes. There must be some way to stop that and I was wondering if you knew what that was? Thanks in advance.
Tony
A: The very nature of any small business is that your employees will learn plenty about your best customers: Who they are, their contact information, and their needs for starters. Employees will also likely have substantial contact with those valuable customers of yours.
That said, the first thing to understand is that, of course, your customers are not your property. They are free to hire whomever they want to provide them with the products or services they like. As long as your (former) employee did not illegally recruit the (former) customer, there is not much you can do about it in a free economy.
You may have noticed that the operative phrase here is "illegally recruit." Here is the general rule: An employee certainly can notify customers that she is leaving the employment of her company before she actually leaves, but the employee may not solicit her employer’s customers while still working for your company. What is "solicitation?" That’s what lawsuits are for, my friend! Solicitation is determined on a case by case basis.
After the employee has left the company, she is generally free to solicit the customers of her former employer, unless she uses the former employer’s trade secrets to do so, or the customer information itself is a trade secret.
According to a typical law, a trade secret is information, including
"a formula, pattern, compilation, program, device, method, technique, or process, that derives independent economic value…from not being generally known to the public…and is the subject of efforts … to maintain its secrecy."
Note too that different states enforce trade secret laws to different degrees, but generally speaking, if you have made efforts to keep customer information confidential (your "compilation"), you can expect exiting employees to do the same. Many employees think that they can take customer lists with them when they leave, so you have to show them, and maybe even scare them into believing, that you sincerely consider your customer list to be secret and valuable.
In the future, you can more easily prevent employees from taking valuable customers with them if you have you employees sign certain agreements when they start their employment with you:
A Non-Compete Agreement: A non-compete agreement prevents employees from working for your competitors for a certain amount of time. Note that state laws differ (California for instance basically has done away with non-compete agreements), so you need to make sure all of these sorts of agreements are permissible in your locale.
A Non-Solicitation Agreement: Under the terms of a non-solicitation agreement, an employee agrees not to solicit any of your current customers or prospects. Employees are not prevented, however, from accepting your customers if the customer voluntarily chooses to go your former employee.
A Non-Disclosure Agreement: Also known as an NDA, this agreement states that in the course of their employment with you, employees will be learning confidential information (your customer list for example) and that they promise not to use it or share it with anyone without your permission for, say, five years.
Such agreements will go a long way towards preventing problems down the road. A great place to find some is Nolo.com.
Today’s Tip: The key to making your customer list a trade secret is to make sure that it contains non-public, confidential information such as key contacts within the company, the company’s particular requirements, and so forth. Then take efforts to keep it confidential and tell your employees that it is confidential.
Steven D. Strauss is one of the world’s leading small business experts. His latest book is the Small Business Bible. A lawyer, author, and public speaker, Steve has spoken around the world about entrepreneurship, including at the United Nations, and he has been on CNN, CNBC, MSNBC, The O’Reilly Factor, and many other television and radio shows. If you would like Steve to speak to your group, help your business grow, or if you would like to sign up for his free newsletter, "Small Business Success Secrets!" please visit his website - www.MrAllBiz.com.
Tags: expert advice, handling competitors, Hiring and Human Resources, losing customers to competition, MrAllBiz.com, small business expert, Steve Strauss
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