In the business marketplace, competition tends to facilitate productivity, and entrepreneurs always need to find ways to stay ahead of their counterparts. Matching up to the competition’s primary objectives of improving value, increasing revenue base, and expanding the customer net requires a great deal of creativity, business-savviness, and good judgment. Therefore, it’s not surprising that 94% of businesses invest in Competitive Intelligence (CI) to remain relevant. Are you looking for simple but ingenious ways to always be ahead of the pack? Here are a few.
- Be innovative and unique
In the business world, being innovative can be likened to a rebirth of ideas that contribute to making a profit and staying above competition. These ideas may come from customers, in-house staff, or even your suppliers. Many successful personalities revealed that some ideas were birthed from complaints, suggestions, and even business errors. This proves that the opportunity to be innovative exists in several ways, but it takes an objective mind to recognize them.
Very often, business entities fulfill innovation requirements through the introduction of new products. However, getting it right the first time and making it complement existing products are paramount. For example, if your company is into face powder makeup production, you’ll want to expand your product line at some point.
However, to get it right in terms of quality and make it accepted among your customer base, you must send the new makeup product to the lab for chemical testing. The same rule applies to any other new product intended for human or animal use.
- Have a growth plan
Entrepreneurs who fail to plan for business growth will likely face business collapse within a short time. Growth is the lifeblood to every revenue-making establishment, and without it, stagnation and loss of revenue set in. Moreover, with many competitors out there on the market, your customers will be more than willing to move on to the next company (most likely a competitor).
Planning for growth involves having a clear idea of where you intend your business to be within set periods. For example, where do you see your business in the next three to five years in terms of growth? There are three important questions you need to ask yourself during this stage:
- What investments should be made?
- What are the potential barriers?
- What resources are needed?
Such a plan, coupled with regular monitoring, can help you stay ahead of your competitors and thrive.
- Make effective use of technology
Today, technology drives the digital age and is a hot demand in businesses. Customers are also on the receiving end as they expect companies to make effective use of technology, especially as ecommerce continues to gain traction worldwide. Furthermore, you’ll need to keep track of changing public demands, and this is where technology comes in again.
Getting real-time feedback has changed the marketplace and has become a major tool to stay ahead of the competition. Besides using technology to study customer behavior dynamics, it helps you streamline your work, increasing your business productivity.
What you want to avoid is losing so many productive hours that you could have better utilized.
Remember that as you’re tracking competitors, they’re doing the same with you. Therefore, you can only pull ahead when you focus on the work at hand without losing sight of customers and profit.
