Everything would be easier without competition. To succeed in the competitive environment, which is today typical for virtually every conceivable business sectors, you need to embrace innovation and thorough analysis. According to the CustomerThink server, companies often wrongly focus on how and in which way to be better than their competition, while in fact they should be more concerned about how and in what ways they should be a better provider of services for their clients. An article that has recently been published describes an interesting 5-step strategy to create competitive advantages.
1. Knowledge of the market
Without detailed knowledge of the market, searching for opportunities to stand out is just groping around in the dark. You need to analyze the market and customer behavior using these two basic methods, the quantitative method (sales volumes, seasonal fluctuations, etc.) and the qualitative one (client expectations, the perception of your brand, etc.)
2. Analyze the data
Use data obtained from market surveys in order to find business opportunities and gaps in the market. Develop your investment strategy, determine your priorities and objectives. When doing that, do not rely just on intuition. You must support your strategy with a sufficient volume of relevant data.
3. Get the marketing department involved as well
Unfortunately, the marketing department is often used only to promote newly developed products. But the truth is that marketing specialists, who have deep insight into the expectations of the clients and into the situation on the market, can offer and initiate great ideas even in the product development itself.
4. Adjust the sales techniques
The way you sell your product can influence how the customer sees your solution as much as a real concrete changes in the product as such. Adjust your established sales techniques and strategies according to the newly developed product.
5. Interconnection
The whole plan needs to be controlled in a central way and should be considered one single process. All of its components must actively cooperate. Also experience and suggestions gained at lower levels should be collected and used for making changes at the higher levels.
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