The Pacer Wire

Can Competitors Be Customers?

This seems like a dumb question. Of course competitors cannot be customers because, they compete against us. We need to find people who can purchase our goods and services in order to help them and their business. Why would we help our competitor's business? After all they are trying to beat us, win our business and grow faster than we are. This is true but if you think about it no two businesses are exactly alike. Maybe there is room to help them and grow your business after all.

The cliché (and you know how I love clichés) says, "Keep your friends close and your enemies closer." This is great business advice. "Know your enemies as well or better than you know yourself," is another cliché that is also apropos. I feel the best way to analyze both your company and your competition is by doing a SWOT analysis. SWOT stands for "Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats." This form of analyzing forces you to be honest with yourself regarding your company. One cannot just say, "we are the best at making superior wire and cable," but you have to define why. Other characteristics that you need to look at are customer service, lead times, pricing, product breadth and financial stability. Hopefully these are in the Strengths category, but if they go in the Weaknesses category then you know what areas you need to improve upon. Doing a SWOT on your own company is difficult but it can be very revealing.

I would suggest using a team of employees to collaborate on the analysis as you will be able to get a better, more accurate perspective of your company and how your employees will be able to give their (hopefully) honest opinions of where your company strengths and weaknesses are. Doing this exercise can also give you a new respect for your competition. If one of their strengths is customer service, then you should respect that. After all, great service should be something we all strive for.

Once you feel you have detailed yours and your competitor's SWOT, find areas that they are lacking, specifically in a product or service you might be able to provide to them. In the current economic climate companies need to think of new and less traditional ways of growing our businesses. Who knows, maybe our competition will have something to help your business too. I don't recommend sharing customer information with one another but providing reciprocal services can create a win-win for both companies. So next time you curse that competitor of yours for stealing the business (being out-sold), then perhaps the next course of action should be to perform a SWOT on both your company and theirs. This could help give you reason as to why you were out-sold and give you the knowledge to make sure it does not happen again.