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| Is Your Business In Someone's Cross-Hairs? |
Is your business in someone's cross-hairs? Is someone aiming directly at your business to take it out? Do not be too surprised if you run into this scenario sometime in your business career. Competitors will never cease to surprise me at what lengths they will go to destroy your business success. The more you are recognized for your abilities to perform well, the more you attract a competitors interest. This is especially true when your sales begin to become noticeable. Your competition may not actually telegraph their dislike for your success, but trust me, they will do despicable things to try and injure your market success.
What do you do when you are in the cross-hairs of your competition?
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| You Simple Compete By Working Them Against Themselves! |
You compete. You simply keep on doing what you are successfully doing. So many times a business owner will become aware of some mild attacks coming from their competition. The first reaction is to retaliate. Stop it. You are receiving a compliment when your competition begins to focus on your business model. What a great place to be. Your business has now become part of their marketing scheme. This can be an opportunity for your business model. If you have a strong strategy for marketing your business model and it seems to be working well...leave it alone. Continue to perform at the pace and creativity your business model is finding successful to do.
If your business model is hot and cold with its marketing plans, try some street fighting when you find yourself being maliciously attacked by your competition. If you are a street fighter, you can work their malicious efforts like a judo class. You can take the energy they are using as they try to defeat you and turn it into some very interesting marketing campaigns. This all depends on how your regional market culture is composed. Your market may or may not permit your techniques to become too aggressive. Be very aware of how your marketing region is defined before you run out and experiment with some street fighting. You do not want to offend your current market share customers. Getting even with a competitor who is attacking you is not worth the lost market shares that may occur in the process you elect. Be smarter than your stronger ego.
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| Be Careful Getting Even! |
One example I have employed in some street fighting efforts of the past involved a furniture store competitor from outside of my marketing region. For a period of about one year a major furniture store retailer would come into our small city from a large metro area. They would place a local advertisement in our small town newspaper and make reference to a free delivery campaign slogan we had been running for about three years. At first we were a little irritated at this tasteless marketing effort. To add insult to injury, occasionally their drivers would stop in front of our furniture store, come into the store and approach one of my staff members to get directions to a customers home from one of their delivery lists. We were directly centered into their cross-hairs. I suggested we find a way to use their negative energy against themselves for the tasteless methods they were employing.
We designed a 'counter-campaign' to their marketing underhanded methods. I went to a local popular hamburger joint and asked my friend who owned and operated the restaurant if he could make up some really nice coupons for some fantastic discounts on his locally famous large burger meal. He made a couple of dozen coupons for me. I told him as those coupons come in for redemption, I would pay the discounted difference when he called me as they came in. He agreed. I then called the lead delivery manager of that large furniture retailer in the major metro area and told him my employees always enjoyed the visits they had with his drivers. I told him one of my best employees was considering to move to the metro area soon. I asked if he would be the contact I could use to arrange an interview when my employee decided to make that move since he would need a job as he attended school part time. He gave me his contact information. As a matter of thanks, I sent a couple of great discount coupons of one of our towns best hamburger joints to him to give to his drivers when they come into our little town. If they needed more on future trips, I would make sure my employees would give them more coupons.
Guess what? They came in often for those coupons. Each time they came in they spent more time talking to our employees. In the meantime, I went around the outside of my store and crossed the street to the other side. I took some great pictures of their furniture truck parked in front of my furniture store. They drive different types of trucks and made many trips to the front of my store. I took a lot of great pictures.
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| Delivery Trucks Did The Trick! |
I then arranged a variety of those great pictures in a large full page advertisement and the caption read, "Look Where The Pros Go To Get Advice On Furniture Questions!" We ran the campaign many times and discovered a good deal of talk circulating about the cute advertisement from the locals. As a cherry on top of the cake, I bought the large billboard coming into town and placed the best photo campaign on it for their drivers to see as they came into town. By the way...shortly after the billboard campaign, we never saw them again. As if by magic, their local newspaper advertisements quit running.
In this case, it worked. Learn not to be the hunted. Become the hunter. The "fears within" are sometimes enough to chase a foolish player away. Just be very careful not to offend your marketplace. It is not always a friendly place to play games. It was fun, however. My staff got charged up. It was kind of a team building experience, too. Just be careful.
Until next time...
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