Turn Your Competitors Into Allies

This article was written by Kim T. Gordon of Entrepreneur.com

Some marketing pundits will tell you that your competitors are "the enemy." But those who think you have to "kill or be killed" to excel in business are on the entirely wrong track. Marketing never needs to be a blood sport. Studies bear out what most of us already know -- that entrepreneurs who focus on maximizing profits or increasing sales are more successful in the long run than those who fixate on stomping the competition.

The truth is, your competitors can be a great source of revenue, and forging competitive alliances can help you grow your business more quickly and easily. Need some ideas? Here are five ways to transform your competitors from adversaries to friends to increase sales:

Form a National Network

It can be a challenge to market a solitary, small business when facing down national chains. One solution is to forge alliances with businesses like yours in other cities or nearby towns that might otherwise compete with you in order to create a network with a bigger image and scope.

Say, for example, you owned a financial consulting firm in Seattle. You might join with other consultants in Portland, Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, Atlanta, Omaha and Boston and create an umbrella marketing campaign. You'd benefit by agreeing not to encroach on each other's territories, and gain a stronger, more marketable image by having a national network behind you.

Create Events and Promotions

Competitive alliances can give you access to a whole new set of customers. When the owners of three quilting shops in Connecticut joined forces to create weekend "Shop Hops," the retailers promoted the events in their marketing newsletters, sending hundreds of new customers through each other's stores.

Since each of the shops had a strong point of differentiation -- offering different types of fabrics, patterns and classes -- they were confident they would retain their own customers while gaining new ones from the joint promotion. One shop owner reported doing a month's worth of sales in a single weekend as a result.

Build a Stronger Image

Imagine you owned a small technology company in an area not typically thought of as a high-tech corridor. You could slug it out alone, trying to convince local prospects not to go outside the area to better-known high-tech meccas for services and products, or you could form alliances with other tech companies in your geographic market and create a campaign to transform the area's image. This would result in increased contracts for your company from businesses that might otherwise have looked to out-of-town companies for technology solutions.

< Previous

1 2

Next >