Like most businesses I know and work with, you’re probably in a competitive industry with competitive forces pushing against you from all directions. Rivals undercutting you, new entrants stealing some market share or suppliers upping their prices.

Here are five ways you can regain control and start to outsmart your competition, get more leads in your business and convert more of them into paying customers.

1. Really know WHO your customers are

When I say, know WHO your customer is, I mean forensically know who your customer is in minute detail. There are lots of ways you can do this and get the data you need. It’s important to really understand their needs, friction, problems, and jobs to be done. When you know this, you can tailor you’re offering around them and speak directly to them.

One way to find this out is to put together a survey and send it to existing customers. Don’t have enough customers to send it too? Then find a similar audience and ask for their feedback.

Ask questions like “How does using [your product or service] improve your life?”. Or “How can we continue to improve [your product or service] to make it better”. By doing this, you’ll get a much better understanding of what makes your customer tick.

Even if you think you know your customer, chances are they’ve changed since you started your business, so well worth doing this exercise again to validate what you know, or change your thinking.

2. Turn your existing customers into evangelists of your brand

One way of outsmarting your competition is to turn your customers into loyal raving fans of your product or service. This tactic will work well to drown out the noise of your competitors’ marketing.

Do this by going above and beyond, delivering not just customer satisfaction, but delight. Capture that delight with customer review requests and maybe even get them on video saying how delighted they were.

But above all else, make it a no brainer that they hit social media and post about their experience. What ‘instagrammable’ moments can you create in your customer journey to delight them and get them on social talking positively about your brand?

3. Get your business involved in your local community

This is really effective as charities have a big voice in your local community and will shout the fact you’re working with them or supporting them.

If your local charities have business groups attached to them, join them and shout about it. Don’t be shy about promoting the charity work you’re doing. Charities rely on businesses shouting loudly and proudly about the work they’re doing with the charity.

So, get out there and get involved in your local community.

All I would say is, do it for the right reasons and not just commercial ones. Choose a charity that you have an affinity with and it will be a more authentic partnership for you and will appear more natural to your customers.

4. Collaborate! Collaborate! Collaborate!

It may seem strange to include this when we’re talking about outsmarting your competition. But, if you’re in an industry or area that has larger competition then collaborating with other smaller independents that are of a similar size to you is a great way to outsmart the ‘big boys’ in the area.

By pooling resources and talent you can quickly grow market share and increase your profits at the same time. Collaborations work well when groups of small businesses come together to take on bigger organisations, they’re more agile and can move quickly to take advantage of trends.

The best collaborations happen when you work with people that have different skillsets to you so you can offer a broader range of services to local customers.

5. Empower and activate your staff to be ambassadors for your brand

Make sure your staff are fully empowered to shout about your brand and act as ambassadors everywhere they go, online and offline. Still, lots of businesses frown about staff using social media in work time. Why not use your staff for good and take the shackles off, incentivising them to blog or create ‘stories’ about their time at work.

Showing a fun environment to work in will do two things.

Firstly, it will demonstrate to customers that you have staff that are happy, content, and love working there. Secondly it will send a message to your competitors that they best look after their staff, or they’ll drift across to you!

BONUS TIP! Be consistent, show up, every day!

This is easily forgotten. To outsmart your competition, you must be consistent in everything you do. Dipping in and out is a sure-fire way to allow your competitors to take market share away from you, and profits! So whatever you do, whatever tactics you decide upon, make sure you’re doing them consistently, even when you don’t feel like it. Show up and add value!

So, there are five tactics you can start using TODAY to start to outmanoeuvre and outsmart your competition. If you need help implementing any of those or want to know more, don’t hesitate to get in touch, call me on 07849 020558 or email steve@stevemark.co.uk