Knowing who your competitors are, and what they are offering, can help you to make your products, services and marketing stand out. Your growth strategy needs to include competitive and customer intelligence to be successful.
A competitive advantage is anything that gives a company an edge over its competitors, helping to attract more customers and grow market share. Do you know, with certainty, what your competitive advantage is? If not, what’s the best way to determine it?
Here are three elements that can help you drive your competitive advantage.
A competitive advantage differentiates a company from its competitors and typically contributes to higher prices, more customers, and brand loyalty.
Establishing this advantage is one of the most important goals of any company and is essential for business success.
To find a lasting competitive advantage, look for something that your competitors cannot easily replicate or imitate and something your customers and targets require and desire.
1. Competitor Insight…
Start by looking at your competitors and their overall operation including the products and services they offer, the prices they charge, the way they deliver their goods, how they sell and support their customers, their branding and marketing strategies and campaigns and customer reviews– this will tell a lot about how they may or may not be delivering on their promises. What gaps in your industry do your competitors fill? How do you measure up against that?
Use this knowledge to create marketing strategies that take advantage of your competitors’ weaknesses and your strengths.
2. Customer Insight …
Don’t make the mistake of being complacent about your current strengths. Even though your customers love you today, tomorrow can be another story. In order to grow market share, it’s critical to understand your ever-changing customer needs and pain points and establish competitive offerings that meet those needs or solve those pain points. It essentially makes you more relevant to your customers and will best position you over your competition.
3. Target Insight…
A target has been qualified to fit certain criteria and has the means to buy your products or services, however, they haven’t made a purchase yet. As part of your competitive advantage, it’s critical to know who these targets are currently buying from and why? But most importantly, what will it take to convince or entice them to make the switch from your competitors to you. Whether it be price, delivery, or support, knowing why they buy from others and not you is critical to establishing your competitive advantage.
Using this data, if you’re convinced your competitors are doing something better than you, then you need to respond and make some changes. It could be anything from improving customer service, assessing your prices, and updating your products, to redesigning your literature and website and changing your suppliers. This knowledge will help you to be realistic about what to focus on to develop your competitive advantage.
Consider these Customer Acceleration tips that will help you make more money from your customers and make them happier in the process!
If you’d like some help with it, please reach out at (216)876-1165. I’m happy to help you get started.
For more customer acceleration tips, watch my video series, Insights-to-ROI: Using the Customer Experience to Accelerate Profitable Business Transformation.
