Whether you like it or not, competition exists everywhere and in many forms. It may be between you and your colleague or you and another business. Although competition causes a lot of stress, but the fact is that it is a very good thing to have competition. It always encourages you do give your best shot. Here are some tips which can help you in dealing with competition in an effective way.
Know about your competitors
First of all, you need to do a lot of research on your competitors, then only you can plan effective moves. Find out their strength and weaknesses and then using all this information, try to make improvements in your own business. This way you can make sure that the quality of the product, which you are offering is at least same, if not better than your competitor. At the same time you have to remember that bad mouthing about your competitor is not going to give you an edge over him, in fact, this will project a negative image of you in front of others. Whether you are networking with other firms or meeting with a new client, you will come across situations where you will be asked for your opinion about a competitor. In such cases, you may be tempted to bad mouth the competition, but the moment you do so, you will be out of the competition. Your approach in such situations must be nice and sincere and avoid reverting to childish behavior.
Embrace the competition
In the past few years, things have changed a lot because of the emergence of social media and internet. Now many businesses have become more approachable, welcoming and friendly. There are plenty of opportunities for everyone, so there is nothing wrong in embracing the competition. In fact, it will work in favor of you if you get to know your competitors. Even you would have noticed that many of your friends in your personal life also happen to be competitor in your professional life. This may appear to be a very idealistic approach towards competition and we also agree that not all competition is going to be as friendly, but you can deal with your competition in a positive way only if you have the ability to embrace your competitors. At the same time you have to make sure that you donât get that much impressed by your competitors so as to start copying their ideas. It is a competition and several times youâll find out that your competitor is doing better than you. In such situations, it is quite obvious that youâll think of following the same path as your competitor did. However, copying a fellow competitor is not going to make you share some of their success, but yes, it can certainly throw you out of the competition. If you do so, youâll end up being a duplicate of your competitor and no one likes to be with a duplicate when the original is already present in the market. You have to understand that getting inspired and copying are totally different issues. The former one helps you in achieving new heights, whereas, the latter throws you out of the competition.
Have confidence in your abilities
There will be situations when beating your competitor will appear almost impossible. However, there is no need to think that you are no good or will never succeed just because âyouâ think that your competitor is better than you. Always remember that the only thing stopping you from winning is yourself, so you need to stop doubting your abilities. At the same time, you also have to understand that you cannot win everyone, there will be times when despite of your honest efforts you lose out on business to someone else. In such cases, avoid taking the defeat personally because it is almost impossible to win over every client that comes along. Be humble and gracefully accept the decision of the client.
Avoid getting into price wars
You often think that cutting costs and introducing cheaper products than your competitor can help you out in beating them. But believe us, this probably wonât happen because a client takes a number of factors into account other than just cost before hiring anyone. It is quite likely that they wonât compromise over quality just because you are providing your services at a cheaper cost. Youâll be able to justify a higher price if you provide quality service, so donât undervalue your services and stick to reasonable prices. It may also happen that some of the clients become suspicious of the quality of service provided by you just because you have priced yourself too cheaply. Such clients will certainly prefer a more expensive competitor over you.
Don’t follow others
You will be creating your own monster if you are of the opinion that chasing after your competition and trying to do exactly what they do is the only thing possible to âkeep upâ. In such cases, you are no longer a part of the competition, you are just a follower. You are never going to get anywhere by being a follower. Understand the fact that businesses are all different you need to have faith in your own business plan. The decisions which you make must be in favor of you and your clients and not just because some other person was successful using that plan.
