Insights from a Strategic Marketer: Why competition is good

Competing and standing out – is there a better way?

Like many, I was brought up with negativity around competition and competitiveness. This was exacerbated even further when I entered my first professional job, in banking in the late 1990s.

The competition should be smashed. Beaten. Undermined. Spied upon. Pick holes in them. If they beat you, you are weak, failing. 

In my career, I’ve been on the receiving end of bullying, intimidating and downright unpleasant behaviour because I was operating in the same space as other people or businesses. I was the competition they had to take down and out.

Having spoken to so many of you about standing out from the competition, it’s clear that these aggressive views on the competition are not necessary. There is a better way.

First, competition shows there is a need for what your business offers. It keeps you sharp and on your toes. It can inspire you. A sector without competition becomes dull, staid, too ‘same old, same old’.

Competition means choice for our customers – so we have to make sure that we are the first choice for our ideal customers. Read that again. ‘for our ideal customers’. We do not need to be the first choice for everyone. Just those clients that we know we are a very good fit for.

Competition can lead to collaboration. I meet so many business owners who are working with ‘competitors’ or have arrangements in place for referring work to each other. 

Sure, we need to keep an eye on similar businesses by doing a thorough competitor analysis, but we don’t need to focus our energy on weakening and destroying them. Instead, we need to focus on strengthening and growing our own business.

To succeed in a competitive market place, we need to be very clear about the specific value our business brings to our clients. We need to strengthen and enhance our uniqueness and make sure the market place knows why we’re different.

At the end of the day, the market will decide – our job is to ensure they know why we’re the best fit for them.