Page 70 - Duct Tape Marketing

54 Part I: Getting Started in Marketing

1. Know your direct competition. If prospects decide to buy from some
other place than your business, where do they go instead?

2. Learn why your customers are choosing those competing businesses
over yours.

3. Analyze how you can beef up the value that the market equates with
your business and products so that buyers will opt for your offerings
rather than the competing alternatives available to them.

Defining your direct competition

On an annual or regular basis, ask yourself these questions:

ߜ Whom does your business really compete with?

When your prospect considers buying your product or service, what
other businesses does that person think of at the same time?

Be realistic as you answer this question. Just because a retailer sells jew-
elry in New York City, that business doesn’t necessarily compete with
Tiffany’s. List the businesses that actually swipe your customers’ busi-
ness away from you.

If you have a service business, list the competitors against whom you
regularly go up against head-to-head as you try to win contracts or jobs.
If you’re a retailer, list the businesses whose shopping bags your cus-
tomers tote into your store, or the business names you overhear while
they deliberate whether to buy your product or some other alternative.
Investigate further by conducting customer research (see Chapter 2).

ߜ How does your business rate against the businesses that your
prospects also consider when they consider your offerings?

Create a list with the name of every business with which you regularly
and actually compete. For each competing business, assess the follow-
ing three factors:

• What are this competitor’s strengths when compared to your
business?

• What are this competitor’s weaknesses when compared to your
business?

• What could your business do differently to draw this competitor’s
customers over to your business?

As you evaluate your business in comparison with your competitors,
use the Customer Satisfaction Analysis in Chapter 19. It presents a list
of the attributes and values that prospects consider when choosing
between competing businesses.