Competition is the most perfect and ruthless market trading mechanism. It is the struggle with competitors for market share that makes business owners think about the client and the quality of the product. The very word competition (Latin concurro - to collide) speaks for itself: struggle, rivalry for your piece of the pie, gives rise to new technologies both in marketing and in production.

Reasons for weak competitiveness

Are you a small or medium business owner? Are you being strangled by your competitors? You do not know what else you can think of to stop customers leaving you, and the level of sales to recover? Are you just observing the growth of a competitor's company, but you cannot understand how he does it? It's simple:

• your business strategy is ineffective or not at all;
• you have launched a business and do not control the situation in the company and outside it;
• low professionalism of key employees, including the director;
• commercial espionage and sabotage.

But you can fix everything if you know what and how to do.

Market analysis of the main competitors. Who are you and who are they?

As you know, you can compete both with the product and with the quality of customer service, you can use legal and black-tailed methods of fighting competitors, but all this does not matter without a well-defined strategy.

Where to start the fight? From answers to questions:

• What do you know about other participants in the market of related goods and services? (How many are there, who are they? How are they presented on the market, how do they promote themselves and their product?).
• How does a competitor's product differ? (Quality, assortment, presentation, suppliers).
• What is the pricing policy for your products and those of your competitors? (Cost, size and types of discounts, purchase methods, margin system).
• What are the main advantages of customer service for your company and that of a competitor, what are the disadvantages? (The quality of the work of the staff with the client, convenience, comfort, speed of service, feeling after the purchase).
• Features of management (staff motivation, working conditions, work schedule, company policy and standards).

There are many useful methods for analyzing competitors: the method of Porter, Kotler, etc., but they are all based on the principle of comparing various features of a competitor's business and on the correct conclusions.

In order to get a complete picture - a map of competitors and their superficial analysis, it is necessary to answer the questions (see above), and the answers to be summarized in a summary table:

The benchmarking table can consist of a dozen aspects, and hundreds of factors, but each business area has its own important areas that should be paid attention to first. For example: do not count the personnel of a competitor or record the quality of the work of managers on a dictaphone if you know that the problem lies in the quality of the product or the price.

This is how you need to start the fight with competitors - having determined your place in the market and the place occupied by other participants.

The best way to get to know a competitor from the inside is by playing a client or a partner - it's like playing a spy. You can also inquire about a competitor from other competitors or partners. And of course the Internet will help you, the main thing is to understand the source of the problem.

Work on bugs

After analyzing the competitors, mistakes in strategy and omissions that were not visible earlier are immediately visible. Next, you need to prioritize the problems that need to be solved in the first place and the plan, how it will be implemented and in what time frame.

Even small changes in strategy can dramatically improve sales and service performance. But we must remember that your company is also under the supervision of competitors and they will not be idle.

Monitor the sectors in which you are making changes. If you have changed the product range - follow the reaction of the buyer to the new product, if you have hired or fired an employee - observe how the system works after the changes, etc. And by the way, all this should be done by a professional in the field of sales and marketing, who can notice the changes and draw the right conclusions.

Ways to deal with competitors

After identifying the pros and cons, both your own and others', you can safely start developing measures to reduce the pressure from other market participants. There are different ways of dealing with competitors, but the nature of the measures depends directly on the results of the analysis of competitors:

• The competitor has lower prices. Find out why, it covers discounts, or who is its supplier.
• The competitor has better service and maintenance. Train your staff. Develop and implement customer service standards.
• Others process orders faster and in greater volume - implement the system.

I can't describe everything with examples, but the essence, I think, is clear - first to understand with whom we are fighting, then to find out the advantages and disadvantages, then active actions.

You can influence the behavior of competitors by active or passive measures. Active measures are associated with the interception of a part of the customers of another company by penetrating into another's layer of the sales funnel. For example:

• opening of outlets near competitor's outlets;
• visual advertising next to the "enemy";
• sMS messaging to competitors' clients;
• dumping;
• anti-advertising of products.
• application of a set of measures to promote goods and position the company. Integrated marketing.

We will not list the black methods associated with the involvement of public authorities, etc. What is the best way to deal with competitors will help determine the analysis of the competitive environment and internal audit of the company.

Passive measures to combat competitors are associated with internal optimization of business processes and product quality. These measures include:

• staff training;
• cRM implementation;
• change in the product range;
• creation of the company's image (image advertising);
• development of standards for working with a client;
• retention of regular customers. Generation of repeat sales.

Understanding your strategy in the market, you can clearly understand what and when to take to fight competitors. The retention strategy and the strategy of increasing market share are different directions, both in the development of the company and in the fight against competitors.

conclusions

Only persistent and smart people who are always able to control the situation can fight competitors. The main thing is not to be idle and remember that everything is changing: customers, products, marketing technologies, customer and employee needs. Keeping your main competitors in sight is the most important task of dealing with them, and everything else is jewelry work.

How do you fight your competitors? Write in the comments!

Recently, we are often asked for help by site owners who are trying to survive from the SERPs. The methods are different each time. We decided to talk about the three most popular ones today. After all, as they say, forewarned means forearmed.

Method one. Wind up.

Let's start with the most discussed and, in our opinion, the least harmless way - cheat. More and more questions about various markups are sent to our Support Service. It would seem that what is simpler - I screwed up a competitor, the search engines noticed it, imposed sanctions - the road to the TOP is free.

Most often, behavioral factors and bulk purchase of links are used to disable a competitor's site.

Bulk buying SEO links

Buying a bunch of the cheapest SEO links to a competitor's website, thereby bringing it to Minusinsk, is a common scheme that comes to mind of many attackers. In very difficult cases, 18+ subject requests are used as anchors, to be sure.

We look at how many incoming links to a competitor's website are now (any services like ahrefs.com will do), buy a little more bad ones, and voila!

I will say this, I saw one case when such a scheme worked. Although, in general, these actions are useless and do not lead to Minusinsk.

How to protect yourself: it is enough to monitor the growth of the link mass (for example, with the help of the Yandex webmaster and Google). And if the growth of the link mass was not initiated by you, it makes sense to write in support of Yandex from the Yandex.Webmaster account and warn them about it.

Usually Platons (Yandex support service) meet halfway and say, well, don't worry. As already mentioned, in most cases these actions did not lead to Minusinsk.

Cheating behavioral factors

For behavioral cheating, Yandex punishes by bringing the site out of the TOP-20 for up to six months. The prices are also not sky-high - from 3 rubles for the transition; why not buy behavioral cheats for an annoying competitor?

Tracking the cheat is also easy, you just need to regularly view Yandex.Metrica.

We look at the amount and quality of traffic, bounce rate, time spent on the site, viewing depth, clicks on links and pictures. That's enough for that. If something seems strange and unusual to you, write to Yandex support.

How to protect yourself: not so long ago, we had suspicions about one of our clients about cheating on his website by behavioral ones, so the Yandex support staff checked and said that the reason was different, and this was not cheating. So don't be afraid to write. Recently, the dialogues have turned out to be constructive.
We wrote in more detail about behavioral cheating and protection earlier.

Method two. Virus.

If a competitor decides to do this, it means that the game is serious and you seriously annoy him with something.

Every site can be hacked. Some are more complicated, some are easier. There can be many variations on how and how to harm the site.

Several cases, which have been seen one after another on CMS Joomla sites, a hidden block is placed on each page on the site, consisting of external links to adult sites and other bad resources. At the same time, the site owner is unaware of the existing problem.
Yandex and Google may not immediately react to the presence of a virus:

But when they react, it will be too late.

How to protect yourself: regularly update your content management system, choose the most reliable CMS and do not save on hosting. Check the site for viruses, for example.

Method three. Content.

There are also many variations on the theme of harm through content.
Let's start with the trickiest.

Outcome

As you can see, there can be many ways to harm a site, and this is not an exhaustive list. At a minimum, check your site for the shortcomings indicated in the article, perhaps this will save you from the intrigues of competitors.

Well, to use this knowledge for evil or not - decide for yourself. I would advise using this time and money to improve your resource, for example, on

When I worked as a taxi driver in New York, I had a chance to give a lift to one old, dry as a cigar leaf, mafia. With his nasty, trembling senile goatlet he brightened up the 3 hours we spent on the road. When we drove up to a typical family Italian restaurant "U Gianluigi", lost among countless quarters of Little Italy, he said to me at last: "Before killing a competitor, be sure to look him in the eyes and ask for forgiveness, because this is only business."
Okay, got it right! I didn't work as a taxi driver in New York. Only in Sterlitamak. This was said by my drunk uncle after watching Scarface and other gangster films. Since for many, eliminating a competitor means accidentally pushing him into an industrial meat grinder at a meat processing plant, here are some ways to honestly fight against such an absolutely normal phenomenon as competition.

"Everyone wants to be the first, but will the first allow?"
Veselin Georgiev

To start

First of all, decide what you want: achieve a result or humiliate your colleagues and assert yourself at their expense. If the second, then you are a pitiful, notorious human, and also a trashy worker, apparently. People like you were constantly spread rot in children's cartoons. We've got advice on fair, noble competition. Start working honestly, working hard, and you won't need to eliminate any competitors. After all, there is nothing wrong with competition. It drives progress. Without it, computer games would be more boring, and the world would be less technological, and cinema would not be so trashy. Simply put, if no one catches up with you, then you are behind.

- Why does this toy break the rest?
- It is programmed to destroy competitors.
- How is Microsoft?
"The Simpsons"

Be curious

Study your competitors. If the feeling of disgust does not kill your adequacy, try to have a pseudo-friendly relationship with them. You do not need to declare your superiority - so you will only provoke them. On the contrary, stick to the line of partnership and insist that you are essentially doing one thing.
However, your partner is not as idiotic as you think he is, and most likely views you as a rival. What are you doing: you mow down like a peace-loving fool who appreciates friendship, and assure you that you have nothing to share, and in general, you like him as a professional. Does not help? Convince him that you have absolutely nothing to oppose to him.
All these self-deprecations are needed for exactly one thing - to lull the vigilance of the bastard and collect information about him.

"Always choose the hardest path - you will not meet competitors on it."
Charles de Gaulle

Think over the actions

Turn on the pocket analyst at home and analyze the paths that your least favorite colleague will not go because of their religion, moral convictions, or simply poor mind. After that, choose the shortest one and evaluate your strengths and capabilities. Let's say your competitor is afraid to take risks. He does everything for a long time, measuredly, but very correctly. And you take the risk, amaze everyone with your speed of task execution. If he is, to put it mildly, "too correct", take the leadership "on board" with your bright, crazy ideas. In general, dear comrade, use all the opportunities given to you for this.
Simply put, all you need to do is find the path that you can use as efficiently as possible. Everything else is a matter of technology.

"When you swim with sharks, the only way to survive is to become the sharkiest shark of all."
Irwin Welch

Indulge your bosses

The principle is as commonplace as a black president in Zimbabwe. Be executive, disciplined, and obligatory. The main thing is that your superiors praise you. Take overtime, do everything on time, and don't infuriate the management.

"If you thirst for the lion's share, overtaking and hurrying,
at the finish line don't turn into ... a fearful mouse. "
Joseph Yudilevich

Evaluate everything adequately

Do not get on the rampage and do not take on those tasks that are beyond your ability. Think soberly. If you publicly, loudly about ... disgrace yourself and frame the whole organization - who will be better from this?
I don’t argue, maybe you are very cool, but that doesn’t mean that you can always remain “the little engine that could”. Unhealthy competition can drive even the most diligent people into the soap.

“Competition is like tea bags. The longer you ignore it, the more the atmosphere thickens. "
Jonathan Gebei

Make friends with the team

Of course, your undercover intrigues will only interfere with normal people. But making friends or just maintaining good relations with colleagues is essential. At least to raise your own self-esteem. And the competitor will be well, very uncomfortable when everyone will “out of old friendship” express support to you and not to him. In the best case, he will not bother with his ideas, in the worst case, he will hang himself.

"Competition is a sin."
John Davison Rockefeller

Generate ideas

The bosses need something new, fresh and interesting. Therefore, by doing trivial plagiarism, you are only digging the grave deeper for your cloudless future. If you are already plagiarizing, then do it so that no one would guess, adding a talented "gag". Well, and relevant.

If in the "dashing nineties" in competitive battles, like in war, all means were good, today more sophisticated methods are used. The best way to win in such a confrontation is to prepare for it in advance. We propose to consider five typical situations of competitive wars and five non-standard methods of counteraction.

Elena Lukina,

creative director, General Line!

You will learn:

• How to win a competitive war.
• How to beat competitors in the battle for the client.
• What to do if competitors are dumping.
• How a competitor can become a client.

A competitor of the Ukrainian company Galacton launched an advertising video discrediting its products, increasing its sales by 43%, while Galacton lost 40%. Sales of beer "Tolstyak" in Smolensk for 10 days decreased by 4 times: rivals with the goal eliminating competitors spread the information that Escherichia coli was found in the drink. Not a single company is immune from a competitive war in business. How to defeat competitors in the battle for a place in the market, save face and turn the situation in your favor?

If in the "dashing nineties" in competitive wars, as they say, all means were good, today more sophisticated methods of eliminating competitors are used. The best way in the question of how to defeat competitors in such a confrontation is to prepare for it in advance. I propose to consider five typical situations of competitive wars and five non-standard methods of eliminating competitors and countering their actions.

How to beat competitors in trading if you don't know them

What happened.At first glance, the situation may seem absurd. Unfortunately, however, it is quite real. Suppose your company has been operating for several years, there are not so many players on the local market, the development strategy is well thought out, and the promotion is in full swing. However, sales are falling.

Recommendation. There is such an example in our portfolio. The freight service is two years old. The company is actively advertised and in its marketing policy focuses on the safety of delivery, that is, the integrity and safety of the cargo for the client. The market can hardly be called highly competitive, nevertheless, customers began to leave. To the question "Who are your competitors?" the commercial director listed the companies with the leaders of which he knew personally, those who were humanly unsympathetic to him. However, he did not have complete information, and as a result, the strategy built taking into account such a vision of the market turned out to be ineffective.

The solution was a simple and quick way of research - a survey. We have developed options for communicating with clients through correspondence, telephone conversations or in personal meetings ( picture 2). All consumers were divided into groups: regular customers, failed customers and potential customers of a random choice who are not partners of the company.

Thus, the company received first-hand reliable information about real competitors, about its advantages and weaknesses, and about what to bet on so that potential customers move to the rank of permanent ones. Most of the respondents mentioned firms that the sales director did not even consider as competitors. The survey also showed that it is not the safety of goods that is important for the consumer (all players guarantee it by default), but the way the manager talks to him on the phone. Many failed customers noted that they were answered dryly, sometimes even rudely. Action was taken immediately and the situation improved.

I want to emphasize that when conducting surveys and local studies, it is important to thank the respondent for participating. A nice addition will be a small gift: chocolate in branded packaging delivered by courier, a discount or an interesting article written by your marketer.

Conclusion. If there is no market research for the industry, when developing strategic campaigns, use the rule: it does not matter who you consider a competitor, it is important between which companies the consumer chooses. To find out this, sometimes it is enough to ask clients - ours and others.

To find out what about your competitors firsthand, interview customers - download the list of questions that will help you learn about your advantages and disadvantages over competitors.

How to conduct a competitive analysis: a ready-made algorithm

In order for the consumer to choose your product, show them how you differ from competitors. The Commercial Director's editors have found for you a simple but effective algorithm that will help you monitor and fight competitors.

What to do if a competitor intercepts your idea

What happened... Your company is introducing a unique product or service: conducting a marketing campaign, accustoming people to the product. You are already looking forward to an increase in sales, but suddenly a new player appears on the market who has come up with the exact same solution, or perhaps simply borrowed your idea. A newly minted competitor may turn out to be stronger, for example, instead of one store, open five at once. You will not only lose the planned profit, but, what is worse, “educate” the consumer for the competitor at your own expense.

Recommendation. Before you write: "This has never happened in our city!", Think about the fact that your idea can be picked up by a competitor. Therefore, it is necessary to seriously prepare for the attack. If the proposal is really new (for example, a massage technique or spa treatment using certain herbs or therapeutic mud), file a patent so that a competitor cannot take advantage of your idea. But this option is also unreliable: it is enough to make a minor change to the product or service, and officially it will be a different product. Therefore, you need to build your promotion in such a way that your unique offer is associated only with your company. So, no one is looking for duct tape in the store - everyone just asks for scotch tape. In the minds of the consumer, innovation should be firmly associated with the name of your company.

If during your time in the market you have not become a leader, it is really difficult to save the situation. For example, a small company opened the first crossbow shooting range in the city. The idea is unique - there were no competitors at the time of opening. Three or four months later, a major player came to the market and launched a whole network of shooting galleries, including crossbow ones. There was an outflow of visitors to the network, where prices were lower due to large turnover, and the pioneer company began to lose profits. However, its leaders were not at a loss: together with sponsors on the basis of the club, they organized a city tournament, after which they began to position the shooting range as an elite club - a place where not amateurs gather, but professional shooters, where crossbow shooting was raised to the rank of philosophy. Now the competitor's shooting galleries were perceived as ordinary establishments in which teenagers from a neighboring yard, drinking beer, indiscriminately fired at targets. A serious and solvent public increasingly began to turn to a reputable professional club.

Conclusion... If a competitor intercepts your idea, you have two paths of development: either try to retain loyal customers and work for your audience (like convenience stores or beauty salons that serve a limited number of customers), or modify the product or service, creating a unique advantage. Find the weaknesses of the "follower" and offer the market what other players in your sector are not capable of.

A competitor sabotages your products, how can you protect yourself?

What happened. The market in which you work is highly competitive, and all the players are approximately equal in terms of product and service levels.

Recommendation. As an example, I will cite another situation from our practice. In 2011, a law was passed that legalizes the activities of microfinance organizations, after which the number of companies issuing small loans for short periods (Pay Day Loans format) began to grow exponentially: Bystrodengi, Migcredit, Home Money, Express Loan ". We received an order to create a new federal brand in this market. It should be noted that the mechanism for providing such services is the same for all market participants, so it is not easy to find rational advantages that would allow the consumer to make a specific choice. Then we began to study not the market, but the consumer: who is this person who urgently needed money, why did he turn to a microfinance organization, what emotions does he feel at the same time?

In the course of psychological research, we found that the speed of obtaining a loan is not so important for the consumer. It is not even a unique advantage, as all market players presented it. This is only a characteristic of the service. Some force majeure situation usually leads to the need to take a microcredit (an accident, dismissal, an appointment with a doctor, a date for which there is no money), so sympathy is important for the consumer. If a manager dryly offers to fill out a questionnaire and looks suspiciously (“will he give the money or not?”), Then the whole procedure is more like begging for alms than service. Proceeding from this, we proposed to build development on a friendly attitude towards the consumer: we named the company Miladenezhka, and the managers were recommended to meet customers with a polite question: “What happened to you?”. Thanks to these actions, the new brand succeeded, the network of offices is actively developing, and the franchise is successfully sold in different regions of the country.

Conclusion. The key to success in a highly competitive market is a clear and precise positioning of the company: how you differ from others and how you attract customers. When you study the market and understand how the competitors' offerings meet consumer expectations, develop an interesting and effective development strategy. Focus on your features, be it an unusual service or memorable packaging.

• Competitive advantage: an overview of strategies in a crisis

Killing Tricks to Eliminate Competitors

Black PR. Any company in the market can be destroyed, and unscrupulous competitors take advantage of this, reasonably assuming that it is much easier to denigrate a competitor than to convey its advantages to the consumer. Black PR can be considered the leader of an unfair competitive attack. Some companies pay the media for ordered materials or spread rumors in the media themselves.

Often, a media campaign is aimed at discrediting business owners and top managers. Also, publications may relate to poor management at the enterprise, ineffective use of property, non-fulfillment of contractual obligations, violation of workers' rights, alleged bankruptcy. In order to discredit a company in the eyes of partners, unscrupulous competitors can inject truthful but defamatory information into the media.

Loan redemption. This is a scheme that has already become a classic of the genre, when a company's overdue and poorly managed accounts payable is bought out by an unscrupulous competitor from creditors (usually, the debtor's consent is not required). Then the enterprising rival goes to court and, based on the writ of execution received, seizes the company or initiates bankruptcy proceedings.

Psychoadministrative attack... Some companies actively write applications to the relevant law enforcement agencies with a request to check the activities of a competitor, as well as initiate various legal proceedings (for example, on the collection of receivables, although earlier these issues were resolved in the course of negotiations), and then actively cover them in the media in order to discredit the enemy ... Tellingly, such actions are massive in order to psychologically weaken the opponent.

Competitors can go further. For example, initiate an on-site extraordinary inspection of the control and supervisory services, accompanied by a large-scale seizure of documents or the demand for copies of corporate and financial and business documents, which subsequently end up in the hands of the instigator of the inspection. Such actions are aimed at disrupting the current financial activities of the company.

"KD" based on materials from open sources

Competitive Wars: Capturing Advertising Channels

What happened.Until recently, your company bought ad units in specialized publications for a year in advance. Today they were bought by a competitor. Moreover, your constructions are dismantled, and advertising posters are covered with advertisements of a rival or simply painted over.

Recommendation. When we were developing an advertising campaign for a service center for boiler equipment, we traveled around many cottage villages in which the target audience lives. All direct competitors were placing advertisements on billboards along highways, so we decided to use a different advertising move. They made a batch of booklets, stylized as "bombs" on a magnetic base, and attached them to the gates of the cottage areas. The leaflets contained the following information: “Are you sure there is no bomb in your house? It is large enough to be found in your basement. Boiler equipment without maintenance is a time bomb. Do not risk the health and life of loved ones.

Be sure to diagnose the boiler twice a year. " Then came information about the boiler center: address, phone number. The three thousandth edition cost about 70 thousand rubles. - the same amount would have to be spent on advertising on three banners within a month. But banner advertising would not have given such an influx of customers: the number of hits after the promotion increased by 48% compared to last year, which is more than three times higher than expected. Note that the action did not cause any negative feedback. We placed announcements of the same boiler center in the city newspaper, but not in advertising blocks, but first on the sports page and then in the "Crime" section.

Conclusion. One of the most common mistakes is to use the same advertising channels that the competitor chooses (magazines, distribution areas). In advancement it is always necessary to look for new ways. Even if you use the same channels as your competitors, look for bright, non-standard solutions.

What to do if competitors are dumping

What happened. Competitors spontaneously reduce prices, forcing them to follow their example.

It is necessary to find an advantage that will compensate the consumer for the price difference. For example, the supply of dry building mixes can be accompanied by the departure of a consultant. In an advertisement, a higher price must be argued in such a way that cheapness would seem a dubious advantage: “We care about your health,” “You deserve it,” and the like, depending on your target audience.

Another option is to create a duplicate brand in a lower price segment in response to price reductions. He will take the brunt of the blow, and you will keep your profit. Thus, large advertising agencies open subsidiaries whose services are significantly cheaper. This creates a launching pad for young designers: they can learn from inexpensive orders.

Conclusion. If a competitor breaks the bar, take the time to follow suit. The consumer gets used to the reduced price, and it will be difficult to raise it again without affecting demand. Create added value for your product or service. Or look for other moves, take risks and make a profit.

How a competitor can turn into a customer

Vitaly Katranzhi, Sales Consultant Trainer, Oy-li

Once, while working with a small company specializing in the organization of communication networks, in the fight for a large and promising client, we faced the market leader and former monopolist, which is now part of Rostelecom. Our offer was very profitable, but the competitor promised the best conditions, technology and connection price. We realized that we were not able to complete this project in such a timeframe and with such a budget, and we gave in.

However, the relationship with the customer did not interrupt, and they constantly conducted an external audit of the competitor's actions. In personal communication with the customer, they gently and accurately predicted possible problems for a competitor during the implementation of the project. And when it became clear to everyone that a major player could not cope with the task at hand, we prepared an agreement in which we acted as a subcontractor for this project. For a competitor, this project was not very profitable anyway. And to avoid legal costs and blacklisting of unreliable suppliers, he signed a contract on our terms.

Thus, we not only completed the project on time, but also received a good profit. The most important acquisition was a loyal client who implemented all subsequent projects through our company. In addition, the competitor was convinced that our connection technology was able to save the situation at many other facilities where deadlines were delayed.

Elena Lukina graduated from the Samara State University of Economics. Joined the company since 2008. Author of master classes in marketing and advertising.

Creative agency General Line!(Samara) provides services for the development and implementation of advertising campaigns, branding, copywriting, as well as the production of graphic products and websites. On the market since 1997. In 2011, the company opened a representative office in London. Official site - www.linia.biz

"Contact-Expert" provides consulting services in the field of marketing. On the market since 2003. Clients - more than 100 Russian and international organizations. Official site - www.expertkey.com

Oy-li renders services in the field of sales development, selection and training of specialists of the commercial department, website promotion and development of advertising materials. On the market since 2011. Official site - www.oy-li.ru

If sales have started to fall, or the company is significantly lagging behind competitors in this indicator, it's time to find out the reasons and develop an effective market positioning strategy.

To win the competition, the most important thing is to understand the needs of your customers.

The first thing to do is to understand the key factors that influence consumer choice. Thus, according to a study by The Forum Group, the high price of a product makes buyers refuse to purchase only 15% of the time. The main reasons lie in the service offer - poor service (45%) and insufficient attention paid by managers to the client (20%). That is why on the market you can often find companies offering products at a reasonable price, while the sales of one of them are much higher than those of a competitor.

Thus, lower prices do not guarantee sales growth. It is also not uncommon for a company to sell a similar product even more expensive (for example, hair shampoo or toothpaste) and, at the same time, more efficiently compared to competitors. This is due to the fact that she was able to competently identify the needs of buyers and correctly position her product on the market.

Based on the analysis of consumers, draw conclusions on how you can increase the value of the product for customers. Tell the consumer what additional benefits he will receive when purchasing a product. For example, by pointing to a special unique product functionality.

Identify your Key Competitive Advantage and summarize it in a USP (Unique Selling Proposition). It should be the leitmotif of your marketing policy.

It is also important to understand what service factors matter to your customers. For example, you can sell cars for a higher price, but still offer a free set of additional options that your competitors do not have. Or increase the warranty period from one year to two.

Assess the competitive position of the product

The assessment of the competitiveness of a product is also based on customer research.

The tasks of analyzing the competitiveness of a product are not only in assessing, but also in predicting the competitiveness of products, as well as studying the factors that affect it.

Based on the analysis of competitiveness, it is necessary to develop measures to ensure the required level of product competitiveness. For example, change the packaging of a product or improve its usability.

Analyze the activities of competitors

The reasons for the inefficiency of sales in the most general form can be reduced to the low competitiveness of the product itself, or an insufficiently high level of service relative to other market participants. Therefore, after you decide on the needs of buyers, it's time to analyze in detail the activities of competitors:
- evaluate their strengths and weaknesses (market share, level of customer loyalty, etc.);
- become their client and see the work of the company from the inside.
Based on the analysis, determine your own market positions and weaknesses and try to be one step ahead of your competitors.