An essential component of strategic planning is analyzing how your business compares to your competition in the marketplace. Understanding your competition gives you valuable insight into market trends you may have missed and reveals what advantages they may have that your business does not. Rather than encouraging rivalries, you will use the information to improve.
How to Assess Your Competition
- Learn about their marketing tactics: how does your competition make their mark in your industry?
- Observe how your competitors advertise their products and services. Is their advertising strategy more appropriate and effective in your industry?
- Find out why customers choose their products and services: is it the quality or price of their goods and services, their excellent customer service, or is it the environment their business offers customers?
- Identify their pricing policies and compare them to yours.
- Learn about their approach to quality control.
How to Assess Your Business Using Your Competition
- Identify the threats creating obstacles to the growth of your business and reassess them with the knowledge you’ve gained from learning about your competitors. How can you strategize around those threats?
- Pinpoint your area of excellence: what does your business offer better than most of your competition?
- Identify your USP (unique selling position): a product or service your business offers your target clients they cannot find elsewhere.
- Assess how you will adjust your pricing to keep up with competitive pricing practices.
- Assess your current sales and marketing strategies: can you invest in more effective strategies?
