Are you and your Account Managers worried sick about the new
competitor coming to town?
I recommend a bowl of Ice Cream.
I’ve never been the type to worry much about what the competition is doing. I have always felt that you need to worry more about what you’re doing than your competitors.
If you’re making the right decisions, working hard and always trying to exceed your customer’s expectations you really don’t have anything to worry about. I’ve often said “it’s hard to lose a happy customer” or to say it another way “it’s not your happy customers that move their business to the company down the street.”
However, I think not at least monitoring what the competition is doing is a very big mistake and you may be missing opportunities for improvement especially if you have new competitors moving to town.
If your company is like ours we are seeing many new competitors moving into our area. I guess the grass always looks greener on the other side of the fence. Worrying and fretting about them will do no good.
Now is the time to make sure you are over-delivering and exceeding your customer’s expectations. I remember reading a book or an article about building a “moat” around your customers. Make it as hard as possible for the competition to get to your customers.
I think you do this by truly focusing on what you do best and improving the things you do badly.
It is the things you do poorly that will give the competition entrance to your customers. But it is the things you do best that will limit the damage.
I see many Companies and their Sales Teams worry so much about what their competitors are doing they completely forget what they do best. They get so fixated on what the competition is doing that they quit bringing their unique value to the customer.
When you began to overly focus on the competition you will become reactive and much less pro-active in your sales process, hence less value. Simply put “less value = less customers.”
Look on the Bright Side
View this as a challenge to improve what you’re doing and see this as an opportunity to learn something new.
As Sales and Account Managers we must always be learning and looking for ways to improve. Let’s put learning from the competition as one of the tools we use to learn. Just like a 2 day seminar, a good sales book and this blog site (I hope).
I’ve been thinking about the Ice Cream commercial that’s been on TV for years. It’s got the happy Ice Cream Truck Driver. I believe their slogan is “We eat what we want and sell the rest.”
So you may be thinking what this has to do with a discussion about your competition?
Probably nothing, but if you can take (learn) what your competitor does best and improve on that, then don’t worry about the rest.
If you see something they are doing extremely well, take notice and see if it is something you should be doing. If it is, make sure you can do it better than them. If not then consider not doing it. You don’t want to become a “me too.”
I would be less than honest if I don’t admit that sometimes the competition and especially the new guys coming to town give me many sleepless nights. But all the worrying and tossing and turning is not going to stop them. You must focus on what you have control and always be the best you can be. Then, don’t forget to try to learn something from them and forget the rest.
It’s time for that bowl of Ice Cream then back to work.
If you would, please leave a helpful comment below or email me at feedback@wewaonthenet.com.
Now let’s get out there and over-deliver!
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