4 Benefits of Knowing Your Competition
I am super competitive and have a love/hate relationship with my competition. While I want to win every new client and project, I value and respect my competitors, whose successes push me to work harder and be better. Without their existence, I may become complacent. The quote, “the time your game is most vulnerable is when you’re ahead. Never let up,” by tennis great Rod Laver, resonates with me.
Whether your competition frustrates or inspires you, spending time getting to know them will afford you four valuable benefits.
1. Pinpoint Your Unique Niche
When I owned an architectural firm, we identified our top three overall competitors as well as our top three competitors in each industry in which we specialized. We spent regular and continued effort understanding who our competition was along with their strengths and weaknesses. We studied their organization, services, deliverables, people, building designs, and their website. We spoke to their clients and vendors, and we built relationships with their partners and their staff. By thoroughly understanding the architectural landscape and our competitors’ traits, we were better able to carve out our unique niche in the market and strategically work toward dominating that industry.
2. Learn From One Another
Your competition is doing many things well, and not everything they do is proprietary. As the saying goes, a rising tide lifts all boats. Why not share mutually beneficial information with your competition about production, technology, workplace best practices, etc.? If your stiffest competition is sheepish about sharing information, join a networking group like www.chiefexecutivenetwork.com or a professional organization like www.AIAIL.org and share ideas.
3. Refer Clients To Each Other
If you do a good job marketing, you will occasionally have inquiries from prospective clients who aren’t a good fit for you. Instead of telling these prospects, “Sorry we can’t help you,” steer them to a valued competitor or peer who can. The prospect will be happy for the referral, and you will have built some goodwill with your competition. Hopefully, one day, they will return the favor.
4. Partner, Merge or Transition With Your Competition
You are bound to run into projects that are too big for you to handle alone or have a lead for an excellent assignment outside of your primary geographic market. When you know your competition, you can identify which firms would be great to work with to strengthen both your work portfolios and client lists. A partnering arrangement also offers an opportunity to learn about another organization’s operational or marketing best practices.
Sometimes the best approach is to work together, especially if doing so results in helping to grow a market for both of you.
When we decided to sell SRBL Architects, we accepted an acquisition offer from a competitor. We had built a two-decades-long friendship and knew our firm would be in good hands. That opportunity would never have presented itself if we hadn’t put effort into knowing our competition and building relationships with their partners and staffs.
Can you name your top three competitors and their strengths and weaknesses? If you haven’t done a competitive analysis or need to refresh it, make time to identify your top competitors, and document key intelligence.
