As a business, one of your most important duties is maintaining your position in your market and always working to move ahead of your competition. However, you’re not going to achieve this if you don’t think outside the box. You must outsmart your competition.

Below, we look at five proven steps you can take today to cement your position as a leader in your industry and even leapfrog your competition.

1. Understand the competition:

Begin by doing some digging to fully understand what you’re up against. Among other things, you want to know how many businesses you’re competing against. It can be a huge number, yes. But when you know this number, planning becomes easier. Also, know each competitor’s Unique Selling Position (USP). What makes them different? Why do customers do business with them? Lastly, know the exact products they sell and the services they offer. The more you know about the competition, the better.

2. Understand your customers:

If you want to outperform your competition, you also need to know what you’re competing for, in this case – customers. Who are these customers? Where do they come from? What are they looking for? Contrary to what many business owners think, not all customers are looking for bargains. Some are looking for top quality services while others are more concerned with customer services and the possibility of striking up a long-term relationship. Find out these needs.

3. Sell what people need, not what you want to sell:

Once you fully understand your customers, focus on solving their problems and addressing their needs. Many businesses focus too much on selling what they want to sell rather than what the customer needs. So, perhaps your customers are looking for presentation software with millions of free photos, but keep selling them the software without the free photos. Why? Because that’s what you want to sell. If you take that route, you’re bound to fail.

5. Differentiate your business:

As we’ve already mentioned, competition is stiff out there, with digital businesses up against hundreds of competitors. How do you want consumers to identify you from this crowd? What aspects of your business are different from the others in a way that would make buyers choose to do business with you and not the others? Businesses that manage to successfully differentiate themselves from the competition are more likely to be successful.

6. Make customer service your top priority:

You’ve probably heard that the next frontier for the business competition is customer service. This is where the battle will be won. Not price or product quality, but customer service. Of course, you still need to provide good prices and offer quality products. But, today’s consumers see those quality products and low prices all the time. In fact, they get all kinds of ads and see endless promotions of the same every day. And they’re growing tired of it. What they want is a business that cares about them at a personal level. If you can provide that, you’ve won the battle for their hearts.

There are several other tips you can use to overtake your competition; you just need to stay on the front line.

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