How to Find Out About Your Market With Competitive Analysis

How to find out about your market with competitive analysis

This post is called how to find out about your market with competitive analysis. Every business school course tells you that knowing your market is crucial. Marketing Directors will say to you it’s everything. Learning this and telling your teams is one thing. But doing something about it is the critical bit.

The awareness of Competitive Intelligence is much improved. Many are seeing the benefits of finding out about their competitors and their market. Many are not, but that’s another story for another day.

What is your market?

The market is a term used a lot in business. But what is a market? Your market is your customers, prospects, suppliers, regulators and your competitors. And many more. Competitors are just one aspect of your market. Your customers and suppliers are also the most critical element of your market. Why? because they’re the ones that could influence your success or cause your failure.

Customers are the priority

Clearly, your immediate priority is your customers. They are paying the bills, which allows you to carry on the next month and beyond. It’s critical to develop the best possible customer relationship management you can. Get to know your customers as deeply as you can. Get them to see you as a key part of their team. You also need to understand what they like about you do and what you could better. You should know what they expect to spend with you and how much they spend on your competitors. Gain an understanding of what they want to see from you in the future. And what they want you to develop to help their growth. This will enable you to keep a happy customer and find new ones.

Never assume

You have to be driven by what a customer will be buy and not by what you think they may want to buy. You can have the most extensive product development team in the world. But if you don’t really know what your customer wants, then forget it.

Competitors

The best place to start looking for new customers is by taking a view of your competitors. Understand what the other businesses out there are like you. The ones who offer similar (or the same) products or services.

Ask yourself what are they doing well and what do your current customers think of them? Why do they like what they do and what do they dislike about them. It’s not a bitching session; it has to be constructive and professional. A customer may say something they like about a competitor, and your next question must be. Why is that? Feedback like this provides a fantastic opportunity to make your offering even better.

What does better mean?

You will also develop a picture of what better actually means to your customer. A very important sentence. What does better mean? To some customers, better will mean cheaper, quicker, more efficient etc. etc.

It’s important to not compete on price when the customer is looking for something else. This situation is just a race to the bottom. Start by looking at your industry as a whole and look for potential gaps in the market. Do this if you are a start-up or an established business. Understand what your competitors are doing. Seek ways you can create more value.

Determine what your customers want and find that niche to settle into. Find the blue oceans of opportunity where customers clearly see your disruption. Jumping into stormy crowded waters will soon see you crash on the rocks.

Look at free social media and online tools to start with. There are plenty out there, and some are ok. They are limited, but if you have the time, it is a great place to start.

Customers needs are changing

It’s important to maintain a view of what’s going on and how your customers’ needs are changing. If you don’t, then it does not matter how cool you are. Or how disruptive or innovative your business is. There will always be new and old competition coming up with something new.

How to find out about your market with competitive analysis

This post was called how to find out about your market with competitive analysis. Hopefully, we have explained that the more you know about your market, the less chance you have of being overtaken.