Adjusting Your Position with the CompetitionIf you find your competition is gaining on you, or is stealing your customers, you have to make a determination to stop the bleeding. This is especially true if when you seek out new opportunities, you find that someone else is beating you.The position you are in the market is what customers picture you as being. It is how they relate you to your competition. If you are second or third, something is wrong. You will need to re-evaluate your business. Perhaps you are not working with powerful words in your marketing message. Such words as established, cutting-edge, high-quality, inexpensive, convenient, or full-service may be missing from your message. It is really the impression you give to your customers that will determine whether they work with you or not. At this time it would be vital for you to look at your competitors and find out what they are doing that you aren’t. Is there something they are doing that you can emulate, but do better? Compare your business to your top competitor and see where you are weak. There may be adjustments you can make that will work quickly to get you back on top. If you know your former customers went to your competitor, ask them why they decided to go with someone else over you. Maybe there was something you changed that made working with you more difficult. Or maybe your competitor does what you do, but added a free bonus of some type. You won’t know until you ask. The best way to find out what your competitor is doing compared to you is to research them. If you cannot do this yStarting an Inflatable Rental Business 47ourself, you may need to hire someone to do it for you. Perhaps you can ask someone to contact the competitor and request all of their literature. Once you get it, you can look it over and compare it to yours. This way you can see what you are not doing and make changes. What if your previous customers tell you they no longer need your products or services? In this case, you will need to better target your message. Maybe you changed your marketing message and it doesn’t fit what your previous customers need. If this is the case, change it so it does. This way you can win them back. One great way to better yourself to your competition is to get testimonials from previous customers. If you do this, you will have something to show new customers. By having testimonials, new customers will see what others had to say about you and your business. You may have to redesign your marketing message and provide a better way of providing your service to consumers. It’s hard to say just what could be causing the problem. This is where research comes in. The more research you do, the better your odds will be of finding out why your business has dropped lower than your competitors. You may not realize this, but you have to consistently evaluate your business to make sure you are being consistent with your message. One change in the wrong direction can cause you to lose a lot of business. If you do not have the time to do this, hire someone who knows marketing and business development to keep track of such things for you. Doing this may mean the difference between having a lot of business and losing it all to the competition, which is something you just do not want to do. The bottom line: Keep doing an analysis of your business and see where your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats are. By keeping up with these areas will help you maintain your business, and will help your business grow. How to Develop your Value Proposition
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