I learned to live with the fact a long time ago that I couldn't think of everything. I can't predict what is the best approach to take with customers. I don't always know what products are best to sell. So, whenever I am in doubt about business direction, I look to my competitors. "Sometimes I think my competitors do more for me than my friends do: my friends are too polite to point out my weaknesses, but my competitors go to great expense to advertise them. My competitors are efficient, diligent, and attentive: they make me search for ways to improve my product and my service. If I had no competitors, I might be lazy, incompetent, inattentive: I need the discipline they enforce on me. I salute my competitors; they have been good to me. God bless them all!"
- Paul Lee Tan In today's world the best way to check up on your competitors is the internet. As I point out in my book, Market Research Made Easy, you can use the internet: to locate your competitors to see what advertising they are using to see what services or product innovations they have created to see who endorses their product to see what key words they are using for internet search engines to see who links to them. The internet is a invaluable tool for market research, which can keep you up to date on your competitors. Competitors keep us on our toes and push the envelope, but I have learned to not follow them too closely. One of our competitors was advertising that I didn't think would work. Instead of running out and paying money to join my competitor, I stood by and watched for a few months. Eventually, they learned that they were wasting money. I saved mine. Competitors like customers aren't always right, but they are my competitors, so I am capable of learning from them. When they are right, I'll follow as well as lead. When they're wrong, I will not gloat . . . too much. |
