Proven Strategies For Overcoming Competition in Business

The strategies available to a company will depend on the strength of opposition it is facing, its distinctive competencies, the expectations of its customers, the conditions prevalent in its environment, its resource capabilities, the cost/benefit derivable from the application of the strategy and its current position within the market.

Competition includes all the actual and potential rival offerings and substitutes a buyer might consider. Understand that your competitors include actual and potential offerings from industry operators, potential new entrants and market competitors.

The ability to identify and analyze all actual and potential competitors to your business is key to surviving in a fierce market place, keeps you ahead of them and helps you develop strategies to overcome them.

To analyze its competitors, a company must identify its competitor’s strategies, objectives, strengths and weaknesses and then device its own strategies to overcome them. It must also have a clear understanding of the environment it operates in. Understand that the environment you operate in is similar to that of your competitors. Learning how to overcome the challenges in your business environment is a step towards overcoming the competitor.

Companies are also increasingly being faced by the threat of buyers growing bargaining power and suppliers growing bargaining power. As such companies must spend time to research and understand its actual and potential customers, what they expect from them, how to exceed their expectations as well as what influences their buying patterns.

Exceeding customer expectations is no mean feat. In today’s business world, customers are increasingly knowledgeable about product choices, service standards and above all consumer rights, hence the increase in buyers bargaining power. Exceeding customer expectations has become a must do for any business that is serious about gaining market share, loyalty and customer trust. You must understand that if you are unable to impress potential customers and keep your current customers loyal to your brand then you have already lost to the competitor no matter the strategy you choose to adopt.

A smart businessman must understand that the customer is the reason why he is in business and not the competitor however competitors need to be managed if we are to gain and maintain our market share favorably. If the product offering and service delivery is excellently superb, then your competitors will naturally have a hard time keeping up with you even if you have not deliberately prepared an attacking strategy to defeat them.

To his end I have packaged the course PROVEN COMPETITIVE BUSINESS STRATEGIES

This course is designed to help you:

·         acquire practical skills that will enable you to understand what customers expect from you,

·         exceed their expectations on service delivery,

·         understand what drives their behavior when buying,

·         understand how the environment you operate in can affect you and your competitors,

·         get a clear understanding of who your competitor is and what they may be up to,

·         Develop strategies that will help you attack the competitor and effectively defend your flanks.

If you are serious about rising above your competitors, then this course is compulsory for you.

Cheers,

Valentine Okolo

Turnaround Strategies to Help You Drive Revenue Growth and Profitability In A Failing/Dying Business

There are basically 2 ways to drive profitability in any business.

•             Increase income opportunities through policy strategies aimed at streamlining costs efficiently, effective use of organizational assets, providing product/ service differentiation and managing risks properly.

•             Increase revenue drive through market expansion and quality service delivery whilst diversifying current customer patronage to other exiting services within the organization.

The diagram below seeks to illustrate how this can be achieved.

 How Can This Be Achieved?

Policy Strategies

These are strategies which I believe will increase revenue by driving market share, weaken competition, cut operating costs and maximize profitability. To achieve this you will need to consider the following options:

Differentiated Service Delivery: This can be achieved by differentiating services such that consumers become attracted to the service because of its unique features. Another approach which many organizations fail to prioritize is its customer service drive. In today’s business world, customers are increasingly knowledgeable about service standards and above all consumer rights, hence the increase in buyers bargaining power. Exceeding customer expectations has become a must do for any business that is serious about profitability, loyalty and customer trust.

Budgeting and Costing Strategies: Here, I suggest you operate a zero based budgeting approach in which all expenses must be justified for each new period; as such every function within the organization is analyzed for its needs and costs. An effective costing strategy suggests you operate a lower cost of production while keeping price constant in other to reduce costs and increase profits. To effectively achieve this, find ways to cut costs across board by ensuring all cost drivers are lower than that of your competitors.

Internal control and auditing will equally be key to ensuring costs are efficiently managed across cost drivers.

Asset Management

Effective and efficient use of organizational assets is key to driving revenue growth. This can be achieved by:

•             Disposing obsolete/ idle assets to reduce costs.

•             Revamping faulty assets cost effectively and reinstating them into use to increase revenue  

              opportunities.

•             Ensuring optimal usage of all assets for profit maximization.

Risk Management Strategies: Managing risk is an essential part of any business. Business risks may appear in any facet of the business. Risks and uncertainty are realities every business must face. For instance, these risks could be: Financial Risks, Economic Risks, Production Risks, Human Resource Risks, Legal Risks, Political and Social Risks, Management Risks and Market Risks. Improperly anticipating risks or managing them when they occur will eventually lead to revenue loss and ultimately business failure.

There are basically 3 ways to manage business risks;

•             Transfer the risk

•             Mitigate the risk

•             Ignore the risk

Marketing and Distribution Strategies

Marketing and distribution are essential elements to increase revenue along various lines.

Expand Total Market Demand

This can be done by introducing your services to those who are not aware of it yet, those who are aware of it but do not use it and those who use it but have not taken advantage of the companies complete product offering

Protect Current Demand

Protecting your current market is a good way to ensure you do not leave yourself exposed to attacks that lead to losses. Constantly review the service in a bid to include additional functionalities. To achieve this i suggest:

•             Advertising as a tool to constantly remind customers of the companies’ services.

•             Leveraging on an area of competitive advantage to drive profits along that profit line.

Increase Market Share

The company must continually seek ways to increase its market share. Increasing market share can be done through new service introductions, boosting current performances through target driven approaches, increasing marketing and distribution efforts to new geographical areas and technological avenue such as social media etc.

Conclusion

The above strategies for revenue growth are a few amongst others. However, I do know that every organization is unique in terms of its strengths and weaknesses and the challenges it faces. Where your challenge is a unique one, please feel free to reach me through the contact form.

They Did What? 5 Customer Service Disasters!

By Chad Brooks

Customer Service Gone Wrong

Everyone knows that great customer service is what makes the best companies stand out from the rest. But, not all customer service plans are created equally. Here are a few notable customer service tactics that fell short of.

L.L. Bean

One of the earliest marketing failures belongs to outdoor apparel company L.L. Bean.

An avid outdoorsman, founder Leon Leonwood Bean began selling workmen's rubber boots in 1912 out of the basement in his brother's apparel shop. During his initial round of marketing, Bean offered a money-back guarantee to anyone not satisfied with the boots. Of the first 100 orders, 90 were returned after the leather tops separated from the rubber soles.

Refunding the money nearly drove Bean out of business.

He quickly learned from his mistake, however, and corrected the problems. Today, a century after first opening, the mail-order company has grown to more than $1.4 billion in annual sales.

Blockbuster Video

A Blockbuster Video campaign hyping "no late fees" eventually ended in the company's bankruptcy.

In a move to compete with the growing Netflix, the video rental giant announced in 2005 that it was rescinding its long-despised late fees. In reality, the late fees remained, since movies not returned by a certain date meant the renter was charged for the entire cost of the film. When the movies were eventually returned, the customer was refunded the money, minus a $10 restocking fee.

The campaign consequently was investigated in 48 states, and Blockbuster was eventually forced to reimburse the states more than $600,000 for the costs of the investigations.

It was beginning of the end for Blockbuster. The company not only reinstituted its late fee policy in 2010, it also filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and closed more than 500 locations.

W.T. Grant

After a highly profitable 70-year run as one of the country's largest retailers, the W.T. Grant variety store empire came toppling down when it started giving its customers a little too much credit.

Looking for a quick way to boost sales, executives at the company began issuing credit cards to anyone and everyone, regardless of the customer's credit history.

W.T. Grant was so eager to issue its cards that store managers and clerks were offered $1 for each customer they were able to sign up. In addition, store managers who failed to meet their quota of new credit customers suffered public humiliation in the form of having to eat beans instead of steak at a promotion dinner, having their tie cut off, getting a pie in the face or having to wear a diaper.

Needless to say, the effort ended terribly for the company, which racked up $800 million worth of bad debts before finally collapsing in 1977.

Gasp

While most companies try to avoid embarrassing customer service missteps, one incident actually left an Australian clothier gloating.

Last September, a Gasp salesperson insulted a customer as she shopped the store for a bridesmaid dress. After helping the customer, Keara O'Neil, find a dress, the salesperson began mocking her weight when she decided against purchasing it.

O'Neil later wrote an email to the store's management about the rude service – and rather than offer an apology, Gasp Area Manager Matthew Chidgey responded with a return email that praised the salesperson and further insulted O'Neil.

In the email exchange, Chidgey wrote, "If you would like to do us any favors, please do not waste our retail staff's time, because as you have already seen, they will not tolerate it. I am sure there are plenty of shops that appease your taste, so I respectfully ask that you side step our store during future window-shopping expeditions."

Even when the email went viral, the company refused to back down, going so far as to ban O'Neil from its stores.

"Notwithstanding (O'Neil's) ill intentions, our business has experienced unprecedented sales volume, and we would like to thank you for all your assistance in helping to achieve this," Chidgey wrote in an email to a local newspaper. "To all the rude and obnoxious clowns, we respectfully ask that you get out and stay out, we don't want you or your business."

Best Buy

If there is one time of year to not disappoint your customers, it is over Christmas, as Best Buy found out last year.

Shoppers who thought they were ahead of the game by ordering presents online from the electronic retailer over Black Friday weekend were alerted just days before Christmas that their gifts were out of stock and would not, in fact, be arriving in time for the holiday.

Unhappy customers took their complaints online, saying they'd never again shop with the retailer and comparing Best Buy to the Grinch Who Stole Christmas.

Best Buy attributed the canceled orders to an overwhelming demand of hot product offerings.

Susan Busch, senior director of Best Buy’s public relations, told the New York Times the problem was that there was an unacceptable delay between order confirmations and cancellation notices once it was determined the products were out of stock.

"It’s important to note that this was a rare situation based on a high volume of orders over a short period of time," Busch said, adding Best Buy was giving electronic gift cards to affected customers as a goodwill gesture to apologize for the mistake.