If you want to beat the competition, you need to understand it. Knowing the competition is the key to differentiating yourself from your rivals and beating them to the sale. But Larato has found that most suppliers and buyers have very different views about who the real competition is.

Identifying your real competition is getting harder as customer choice is expanding to include start-ups, companies from overseas, big brands branching out, and the customer doing it themselves. So to understand and beat the competition you need to stop looking at your peer group and start listening to the only people who matter – your customers.

This #HelpMe guide reinforces the need for suppliers to reconsider who their competition really is, and then actively differentiate themselves from them. It will help you to understand your competitive position and build an action plan to win against your competitors.

Chapters in this guide:

1. Who do you think your competition is?
   by David Dungay
2. Who do your customers think the competition is?
   by Bryan Betts
3. Who is the real competition?
   by Dr. Lucy Green
4. #HelpMe action plan
   by Dr. Lucy Green

Extract from “I want to beat the competition” #HelpMe

Understanding the competition is vital in any marketplace, and the first step is to define exactly who the competition is. Too often suppliers focus on their standard peer group of companies and don’t employ the simplest of detective techniques… asking their customers! Whether it is through fear or
a simple lack of willingness to engage, some suppliers won’t ask customers about the competition in case they give them “ideas”. Putting your competitors’ names in front of your customers won’t be giving them any ‘ideas’… well, not any new ones anyhow. However you may learn something new: most likely that your customers have a very different opinion on who your competition is. And finding out your customers’ thoughts and ideas on other suppliers and solutions will place you in a position to beat them.

Related services: Market development, competitive positioning