Who cares what the competitor is doing if you are building a product that your customers love and cannot be without?
Focus on your own product and business and not your external competitors, and you will find success. Targeting competitors and trying to beat them in that sense will only make your own business unstable, hence vulnerable. Instead you should focus on what you control and that is being the best you can be in terms of your value proposition to your targeted consumer at a profit – and that is doing business.
A bit unconventional but a different and practical perspective: ignore your competitor. That’s right, I think you should ignore your competitor and not worry about what they are doing. Yes, you could study the competitor’s product, analyse their marketing, and deconstruct their strengths and weaknesses. Or, you could simply focus on what you can control, build a product that you love to use, and do your best to delight your customers. There is no one in the world who knows the problems and opportunities of your product or service better than you. You don’t need your competition to help you build a better product or user experience.
It’s very likely that your competitor has fundamental differences from your business and is structurally different too, and therefore, comparisons don’t make much sense. Whatever the situation, it’s likely that your competition has different internal pressures, other priorities, and divergent measures of success. There is no possible way to understand how your competitor is structurally different from the outside, and it means that comparisons are not very useful. It’s yet another reason to look inward, rather than concern yourself with your competition.
Limited resources
You have limited resources invested in your business. Your most valuable asset is time, so use it wisely. Put your energy into building a better product and satisfying more customers rather than spending time evaluating the competitor’s every move that you see and encounter.
It may defy conventional wisdom, but companies that focus their energy inward and strive for greatness are much more likely to succeed. Challenge your team internally to ignore the competition and focus on every aspect of your own business. How can you improve a customer’s interaction with your product or service? How can you make your brand more powerful and marketing programs more effective? How can you improve the quality of your product while reducing your cost?
There are so many ways to improve your current business without any knowledge of your competition. With limited resources, be extra picky about how you spend your time.
Your customers don’t care about your competitors. Although your customers may have researched available options in the market, after they choose your product they don’t really care about the competition. Don’t concern yourself with the competition, be the best solution to your customers’ problems. Offer a fantastic solution to a real problem and get your brand in front of your customer as often as possible.
Surprise, delight, and more than satisfy your customers’ needs and you’ll never have to worry about whether they will choose a competitor again.
Innovate – not follow
Your innovation and creativity can be stifled by competition: Build something new and different — that’s innovation. Too many companies don’t actually innovate, they only refine an existing competitor’s product or service. If you compare everything you do to your competition, you may find yourself in a battle for survival. Instead, make the competition irrelevant. Invent something new and original and ignore the competition — that’s the formula for innovation success.
You can’t control your competition: Despite your best efforts, nothing you do will actually impact your competition. Nothing we did would stop them. The lesson: chart your own course. To do this, make sure you can clearly articulate your strategy and make sure all of your employees know it too.
It’s important to spend time articulating and repeating your strategy so that everyone in your organisation knows what you are trying to achieve and how you are going to achieve it. Put your energy into things you can control and make sure all of your stakeholders understand your path to success. With a solid strategy, you can be successful in the market regardless of what the competition decides to do.
So yes — ignore your competition, focus on what you can control, and find your own path to success. But pop your head up once in a while to educate yourself about how competitors are attacking the market. Find a healthy balance, and you will find success.