Five Strategies For Beating The Competition

What if I told you your biggest competition and fiercest challenger as an entrepreneur was yourself?

So many people launch a new product or concept with all guns blazing. They see the flooded marketplace as their enemy and the fat cats of the industry a seek-and-destroy mission.

The study of NLP is all about finding the positive and creating choices and this couldn’t be more true of your competition. By loading your weapons you are closing doors on the opportunity of amazing learning, inspiration, collaboration and possibly even partnerships.

So before you target your ‘bad guys’, consider the best place to spend your energy: on your business, or theirs?

Entrepreneurs often face an intimidating market. Yes, some of your competitors are massive multi-billion dollar corporations and new entrepreneurs are stepping up with incredible ideas each and every day, and the market doesn’t care about your feelings. So how do you make your mark, get ahead, and beat the competition?

You might be surprised by my suggested strategies and tips below, that might not be your expected ways to have you beating the competition.

Embrace Your Start-Up Status

Focus your energy on doing one thing: listen to your client and solve their problem with your product and do it better than anybody else.

Many entrepreneurs think they have to make it big tomorrow. It’s just not possible, even overnight successes didn’t happen overnight. It takes time, commitment and dedication. Every time you get a positive result, you are winning, you have the blueprint.

This is the best time of your business life. If you have no staff, no customers and no product, you are free to do anything you want. There are no holdbacks, no hold ups and no red tape. The only thing limiting you is your mind.

As a brand new company you are fast, you are agile, able to change direction quickly, adapt swiftly and even dodge a bullet or two. That means you can deliver one-on-one service to your customers that meets their needs quickly and with that personal touch big companies can’t possibly manage.

Listen to what your clients are asking for and customise what you can to deliver! It couldn’t be easier.

Be Persistent

Polite persistence wears down resistance every time. You’re going to be hearing the word ‘no’ a lot. Learn to love it. Embrace rejection, wear it as a badge of honour, because it is your greatest opportunity to learn!

Don’t get discouraged because you don’t make it on day one, or week one, or month one. Your purpose has a longer reward. You just need one opportunity to work out and the rest will follow, you just never know where that opportunity will come from.

When I first started I was terrified of rejection. That fear stopped me from putting myself out there and getting clients. Forget about the competition, I was making no money and getting nowhere all by myself. The trick is to find a way forward. Most businesses don’t survive the first year, simply because they quit before even giving it a real go. The real way to beating the competition is to do what your competitors fear.

Whatever it is you are afraid of hate, find a way to love it. For me, that meant getting on the phone, cold calling from the phone book just to get as many rejections as possible. I actually got excited when I got rejected! The important thing is to keep that passion alive. Find ways to meet new clients and brush shoulders with decision makers in your niche. And remember, just because they say no, doesn’t mean they don’t like you. Make an impression and they’ll remember you for next time.

Play Nice

Going toe to toe with your enemy might seem like a logical way to start your business but what about the long-term effects? Bad blood, winners and losers, defending yourself, comebacks and always having to look over your shoulder sounds more like something for sports than business.

What if you had a side product that actually enhanced and complimented your competitor?

Are there companies out there that you are completely overlooking as allies, because you are looking for foes? An alignment would mean you’d get a large part of their database as customers and you would, in turn, grow each other’s business.

It’s all about understanding where you are different, rather than where you are the same, and leveraging that. Working on amplifying your differences will attract a wave of clients who are not already being looked after, at the same time opening opportunities to be recognised by those decision makers.

Your rivals may be able to offer the best mentorship, inspiration, motivation and creativity of your career, especially when they are doing what you love and living your dream.

See them as your best friend, even if you never get to meet them. Look to impress, rather than intimate, and you will find yourself not only moving fast up the ranks, but doing it on your own terms, your own schedule and meeting your own desires instead of mirroring and undercutting a giant you possibly don’t even want to be.

Be Confident and Take Risks

If you have seen the movie on the real life events Catch Me If You Can, you will learn a very important lesson about confidence. It doesn’t matter if you know NOTHING about what you are doing, if you act with total confidence, amazing things happen.

I’m not saying you should scam your way into business success, just that confidence and risk will get you moving. As I say at Live it Now, faith it ‘til you make it!

A risk means trying something that isn’t proven as well as doing whatever it takes, risking it all!

Treat yourself and your company professionally and confidently. If that means employing the perfect team members to support you, do that. Appoint yourself as the CEO and do whatever it takes to get that idea out of your head and into the world. Whatever the hours, however long it takes, whoever you have to talk to. Find a way to get there.

As the CEO step up, exude confidence, even if you have to take it to crazy levels. Be smart, make decisions quickly and change your mind slowly, take action as soon as you see the need, delegate efficiently, demand high-quality products and execution.

If you believe in your vision and stand behind it, you will get there.

Be On Purpose

Have a clear vision of where you are going and why you want to go there. This is your purpose and if you are fully aligned with this you will be unstoppable, no matter who your competition is.

Being on purpose works so well because it carries so much drive, not only that but your passion will attract other passionate people to assist and enhance your journey.

The vision alone is not enough, you’ll need to move ahead quickly, because someone else out there will beat you to it if you hang around planning for too long. Have you ever had an idea and hesitated with it only to see that same idea on the shelf or online as a service a year later?

So don’t sit on your idea, get it moving, be part of evolution, not just a spectator. Not only will you be first on the market, therefore the authority, your vision completed will be a springboard for someone else’s idea behind you. The ripple effects of living a life on purpose are staggering so show up and watch the world change!

Consider where your energy is being used. Every minute you spending stressing over what your competition is achieving is a minute you’re not working with your customer, getting familiar with your own data and understanding what steps lie ahead to get your product to the next level.

All you need to do to be successful is back yourself and your business and dedicate yourself to your passion.

Made it!

So what happens when you use these hot tips as ways of keeping up with the competition and stamp your mark on the world?

Once that big break comes along, work harder. If you take it for granted now and slacken off all that hard work will be for nothing. Business works in 90-day cycles. Go full-gas for 90 days, then recharge, then come back with renewed energy.

Make sure your vision includes where you will be in 3, 5, 7 and 10 years’ time so that you always have a destination to plan towards, although be flexible, these may change or come faster than your expected.

As I said, this is fun as well as a lot of hard work, so enjoy it.

Matt Catling