Welcome back! We're continuing our journey down the path of marketing. And in this lesson, we're going to talk about competitors and competitive analysis.
In order to be able to make important marketing and management decisions, you've got to have regularly updated detailed profiles on all your main competitors, what they do and how they do it. Knowing your competitors allows you to: 1. Build long-term and short-term sales plans, 2.
determine your market share correctly. 3. 3.
Create your unique selling proposition, also known as USP. We're going to talk more about that in lesson 5. 4.
Set your pricing policy. 5. Create strong positioning.
Where can you get your information on competitors? There are two main ways to do it. 1.
open sources. 2. own research.
When we say open sources, we usually mean analytical and statistical reports issued by the government, media articles and posts, official websites and social media profiles, verifiable customer reviews, expert opinions, and so on. Here are a couple of well-known, respected Internet sources that may contain useful information. As for your own research, you can collect information either from the existing or potential clients of your competitors, or send a bunch of mystery shoppers to find out what's what.
Mystery shoppers, also known as "secret customers", are people who pose as real customers while secretly assessing your competitors. This could be done in a number of ways via phone call, email, social media, web form, or in person. So what kind of information do we usually want to find out during competitive analysis?
1. target audience is that your competitors want to reach; 2. the USPs that they use; 3.
strategy used to reach the target audiences; 4. methods used to reach the targeted audience; 5. How efficient your competitors are.
Measurable results. This information should be enough for you to understand the following aspects of your competitors' business. 1.
marketing strategy; 2. strengths and weaknesses; 3. plans for the future development; 4.
pricing and marketing policy; 5. distribution channels. But how do you know who your competitors are?
Well, if it's not obvious from the get go, you can use the buyer persona method we described in the previous lesson. When you interview your existing clients, you can ask them questions like: "How did you solve your problem? Did you consider any alternatives?
Why did you ultimately reject them? " And last but not least, there's actually an alternative option that comfortably exists in the minds of your clients. Instead of choosing a certain product or service, whether it's yours or your competitors, the client can just say: "Whatever.
Not now. " Choose nothing and bail. Situations like this are not uncommon.
So, what should you do to counter them? Well, you can always give your client some time to think and maybe come back later. But you should also realize that if this happens, it means you cannot persuade the client, your offer was not good enough for them for some reason.
Understanding that reason is the key to everything. Do whatever it takes to find out what made the client reject or neglect your offer in the first place. And you will win them eventually.
Every time you communicate with a client, follow these three simple rules: Rule #1. Know all the ins and outs of your product Bitrix24 from A to Z. Rule #2.
Know the products of your competitors to a lesser degree, but still well enough. Rule #3. Never try to put down your competitors and or their products.
This is just unprofessional. Better yet, concentrate on the actual benefits of your product, and how you can get them through to your clients. That's it for now.
Take it easy and see in the next lesson!
