Is it the economy or are some competitors doing quite well?
If you’re ever in a situation where your revenue or profits are falling year on year, it’s really important to find out why that’s happening.A common response to the question, “Why is your revenue falling?” is “It’s the economy – it’s really tough out there.”
Our response is to ask if there are any businesses operating in your industry who are actually doing quite well now.
What we’re looking for is what we can learn from what other people are doing, and those ‘other people’ could be your competitors.
It’s really important to do a periodical review of your competitors to find out what they’re doing relative to what you’re doing and seek to learn tips or tricks on what you can do better to grab back some market share.
Here are five ideas to do exactly that:
- Ask your team because they’re closest to the coalface dealing with customers – and customers who have probably dealt with your competitors as well as your own business. They’ll be able to give you some feedback as to what they’re experiencing in your marketplace.
- Grab some promotional material available from your competitors, including their website, to see what messages they’re sending to the market now. Make sure you’re on the same page as them in what they’re doing.
- Ask your customers and suppliers. Find out where you sit compared with your competitors, but make sure you ask them to be honest and constructive in their feedback.
- Analyse your strengths and weaknesses, even if that starts with a simple brainstorm session with your team. Write down all of the strengths you have in your business as well as all the weaknesses you have and then pull together an action plan of the top three items you’re going to change.
- Get your action plan together and then implement that plan.