Stalking is not a strategy.
Do you STALK your COMPETITION?
It’s so easy to become exhaustingly immersed in the perceived on-goings of your competition. Following their Facebook Page, tweets, advertising campaigns, market involvement and cross-customer feedback all provide useful information. In many ways, these activities of new-age obsessiveness are effective tools. Understanding competitors marketing methods and analyzing creative strategies they are employing offers insights into how they are, or are not, playing the industry game.
WARNING: EXECUTING THESE METHODS TO QUANTIFY YOUR BUSINESS SUCCESS—NOT A GOOD IDEA!
Why? Because you, and your business, are not your competitor. Allowing yourself to be swallowed into the black hole of competitiveness stunts growth, awakens your inner-toddler of comparison and feeds the insatiable monster of self-doubt.
TIPS for turning OBSESSIVE STALKING to EFFECTIVE STRATEGY:
YOUR BUSINESS—YOUR BENCHMARKS.
Excessive focus on your competitors may lead to assessing how you do business against their benchmarks. The result? You begin to manage YOUR Company in a “competitors vacuum” which thwarts creative strategic planning and growth. To be successful (however you define that for you and your business) you need to be GREAT at what YOU do. Not at what they do.
EXPONENTIAL ENERGY SUCKER
The time you spend on what your competition is doing is time you are not spending on your own business.
YOU ARE NOT YOUR COMPETITION.
Direct your focus on developing and exploiting what makes your business unique and of AWESOME VALUE to your target market. Focus on your strengths and unique capability to deliver results for your people. You are in business for your customers, not your competition.
YOU ARE NOT YOUR BUSINESS Years ago I introduced myself, in person, to the owner of our retail competitor. I was socially stunned when she refused to shake my hand. I know firsthand that we run our business with the utmost integrity (and train our staff to do the same) so I could see no personal reason for her to be so rude and disrespectful. No professional reason either! We were competitors. Not enemies. Our business is something that we do and, although a huge part of our lives and intricately connected to our passions, it is not WHO WE ARE. Making this distinction from the beginning will save you many hours of misdirected emotional energy. Next time I see that woman I just might give her a hug (like a big smushy one). After all these years of internalizing the world of business on such a profound and personal level…she will need one don’t you think?
So while you are looking up old boyfriends and past high school rivals, take a peak at the competitions Facebook Page. Take note of their advertising campaigns and keep an eye open for creative marketing strategies. Learn from what they do. File all of this under “competitor collateral” and move on. Remember. Comparison is the thief of joy!
Focus your energy on your unique offerings and how to connect what you do with those people called customers who want AND need it. That is something your competition just cannot touch.
