15 Evaluating your competitors’

propositions
Evaluating your competitors’ propositions is all about studying exactly how they
are positioning and presenting themselves. It is about exploring what they are
doing and seeing for yourself where their strengths and weaknesses are.

Why is it important?
This is important because your competitors are in your marketplace and you will
no doubt come up against their propositions when you take your service to market.
It is useful to understand exactly what they are offering to see whether there is
anything you could learn about and/or do better or differently.

Your challenge
Your challenge will be to find out. It takes time to study your competitors and it
needs to be done in a systematic way to get the best out of the exercise.

How to check out your competition

You can be a real customer. You can visit their premises and read their advertising
and promotional literature. You can visit their websites. You can subscribe to their
newsletters. You can call in as a mystery shopper.

EVALUATING YOUR COMPETITION ^ SPECIAL RESPONSE CHECKLIST

These are the questions you need answers to:
" Who do you consider a competitor?
" What are they selling?
" How do they position themselves?
" What is their unique selling proposition?
" What is their competitive edge?
" How much do they charge?
" What marketing literature do they use ^ what is it like?
" Where are the weaknesses?
" What is their website like?
" What are they not o¡ering that you could?

36
 UNDERSTANDINGYOUR MARKETPLACE AND YOUR COMPETITION

" What questions would you like to ask as a potential customer?

" Would you use this product or service?

How to use this information

A useful way to summarise this information and compare notes at a glance is to
create a spreadsheet and compare like with like.*

Think evaluate the competition and get the edge

*download your free competitor evaluation spreadsheet from www.salesfasttrack.co.uk

37
 16 Learning from others in your
marketplace
All successful business owners have been through a learning curve to enable them
to get to where they are now. You may be just about to start that journey. There are
many sources of learning for you if you know where to look and are prepared to go
out there and ask for the information you need.

Who can you learn from?

Depending on what you want to know the sources are endless.

Role models

Find a number of potential role models, people who are currently doing exactly
what you want to do and doing it well. When I wanted to get a book publishing
opportunity I asked a number of published authors about their experiences and
how they went about getting a book deal. I am now doing the same for other
information products that I wish to produce. Model the best.

Real-life experiences

Read books about the ‘real story’ behind businesses that have achieved
phenomenal success in the marketplace. Most you will find started from humble
beginnings. Read about Sahar and Bobby Hashemi in their book Anyone Can Do
It – Building Coffee Republic From Our Kitchen Table, Richard Branson and Virgin
and Anita Roddick and The Body Shop.

Entrepreneurs

Do you know any entrepreneurs? They make their ideas happen. Most
entrepreneurs you will find have had a number of failed experiences before their
big break took place.

Marketers and specialists

What about successful marketers who will also have plenty to share? These are
specialists in the particular areas of expertise that you know you need to make your
business a success.

38
 UNDERSTANDINGYOUR MARKETPLACE AND YOUR COMPETITION

Other business owners

Somewhere in the country there will be other businesses just like yours which are
successful. They may be willing to share their secrets with you as long as they see
that you are not a competitor. Many people like to help.

The media

There are marketing ideas around you everywhere you go. Notice what has an
impact on you. Could you adapt that idea in any way to work for your business?

What can you learn?

You will need to be clear about what it is that you need to learn before you embark
on your quest. Here are some suggestions.

& Systems and methods.

& Problems that you might come up against and how others found a way through.
& Marketing ideas.
& Typical mistakes to avoid.
& Suppliers of services you need to make your business a success.

Why is learning important?

Why reinvent the wheel? If what you want to do is currently being done
successfully somewhere then it can save you enormous amounts of time, energy and
resources if you can find out where and learn from the person who did it. It can
take a long time to work it out for yourself. There is so much information available
and so many ideas that you can benefit from that you don’t need to feel alone with
the thoughts in your own head and a blank piece of paper.

Your challenge
Be careful to choose the right sources and people to speak to. Some people may
put you off with too many negative experiences. You need to be selective about
what you take on board and what you let go.

39
85 INSPIRING WAYS TO MARKET YOUR SMALL BUSINESS

What can help you to learn?

To start with accept that it is okay not to know all the answers. An open,
inquisitive mind is the best place to start from. It is useful to have a structure to
your quest. Know what you want to find out. You also need a plan to do something
with the information as you get it. Remember ‘what you don’t use you lose’.

LEARNING FROM OTHERS IN YOUR MARKETPLACE ^ SPECIAL RESPONSE CHECKLIST

" Write a list of all the things you want to know.
" Write down some questionsyou want answers to.
" Decide how you are going to ¢nd this information.
" Find out who are the best people to speak to.
" Who do you know who could help brainstorm?
" Decide on the best sources of the information you need.
" Make a plan.
" Decide how you are going to keep a record of it.

Questions for your role models and similar successful and respected businesses
" Looking back at your success what was the most important thing you did?
" What were the biggest challengesyou faced?
" How did you overcome these challenges?
" How did you build a successful marketing system?
" What is most important to set up initially?
" What works best for you?
" Looking back, knowing what you know now, what would you pay most attention to?

How to use this information

It is important to take what learning you need from your role models and do
something with it as soon as you can.

Take other people’s ideas and make them your own. Use their experience to
stimulate ideas for your own business. Make it a goal to practise life-long learning.

Think role model and learn from what already works

40