Bismarck
Today we are going to talk about “competitors”. Do you really have competition?
Let’s take a look at the pie theory. Ok, so here is a pie, and ABC Company has one-fourth of the pie, and DEF Company has one-eighth, and so on. So you are looking at this pie, wondering how you are going to up your 1/20th of the pie to a quarter or more. You are looking at it all wrong. Instead of trying to “take” someone else’s piece of the pie, MAKE YOUR OWN PIE! Come on, if you really think outside the box, you can come up with business another way than taking someone else’s.
First of all, you don’t have competition. Yes, there are businesses that sell the same product or service as you do, but that doesn’t mean you are in competition with them. How about being a little different and attracting different clientele? How about working with your “competition”? You are thinking I am crazy right now aren’t you? Well, I have done it and proved it to be a benefit to my company!
Back to my flooring/contracting days. In the flooring business, it is impossible to sell every single type of flooring out there. There is no store big enough and quite frankly, it would be so cumbersome in so many ways, you would not have a good business. So, what did I do? I got to know my “fellow flooring store owners” in the area. I found out what they had that I didn’t and vice versa. I approached them with the idea that “hey, none of us have it all, I have this, you have that, etc.”. So what happened? Great things happened! I started referring people to the “competition” when my customer needed something they had and I didn’t, or I bought it from them at a discount. Guess what?!?!? They started doing the same thing. We all had good business, and more importantly, happy customers.
Think about the business you own. Can you work with your “competition”? Can you think outside the box and start your own pie? What makes you different?
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