It's good to get one over on your rivals, here are 27 options for your ammunition.
1 Go to war
Are you ready for all-out war? Get your team in the right mental state by signing up for the Academy of Competitive Intelligence’s War Game.
“A War Game is a battle between teams representing the host company and its competitors, working on the basis of competitive intelligence research,” explains “field marshal” Leonard Fuld. Visit www.academyci.com
2 Steal their best moves
The best way to uncover your competitors’ tactics is to become one of their customers. George Karibian’s Euroffice supplies office stationery, but he orders his pens and paperclips from his rivals:
“By talking to my competitor’s delivery drivers, I found out that when a customer sends back a product, instead of taking it back to the warehouse – which is a waste of time as returns can’t be re-sold – drivers are instructed to use that product as a bonus giveaway on their delivery rounds. It’s so clever! So now we do the same with all our returns.”
3 Snooping, level 1
Begin by examining your competitor’s website with forensic attention. Most companies can’t wait to brag about their achievements online.
You’ll find information on deals and partnerships, details of finances and strategic plans – not to mention a list of clients. Ring them up and make a better offer, suggests Phil Worms, director of products and marketing at internet usage monitoring company Netintelligence.
4 Snooping, level 2
Next, track the web for press releases. “All you have to do is set up Google and Yahoo alerts for your competitors and the information will come to you when any significant deals or results are announced,” says Worms.
Andy Dodwell, MD of virtual PA service Moneypenny, uses this technique: “When your rival brags about landing new clients you can ring up and offer to undercut the deal.”
5 Snooping, level 3
Keep an eye on who they’re hiring and firing. Log on to careerbuilder.co.uk or monster.co.uk to track recruitment ads and employees looking to move on. If everyone from your competitor’s local branch has posted their CV, chances are that branch is closing. A spate of recruitment in a particular field points to expansion.
6 Snooping, level 4
Monitor discussion forums. Use deja.com, a sophisticated Google search tool, to track chat rooms related to your line of business. While employees might get fired for what they reveal online, it’s too late once it’s out there.
And don’t forget to read the local press and trade mags. “A local paper did a piece on life at a company factory, complete with great data on how many people worked there and the average salary. We put that information together with other data and developed a pretty reliable estimate of manufacturing costs at this plant,” says Fuld.
7 Snooping, level 5
Get personal. The more you know about your competitor, the easier it will be to anticipate their tactics and offer your customer a different approach. Read their press interviews, find out where they went to school, who they drink with – or go one better and befriend them.
8 Hire an expert
If incessant observation seems like too much work, hire an expert to do it for you.
“There’s a limit to how much you can find out by yourself so ask a SCIP (Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals) accredited research agency or competitor intelligence expert to act on your behalf,” says Claudia Brendel, competitive intelligence expert at recruitment company Fresh Minds.
Market research companies such as Mintel will provide you with an industry overview: www.mintel.com
9 Poach their staff
Staff, especially disgruntled staff, are a mine of information. “Get a head-hunter to target your rivals’ employees. Invite them to an interview and grill them!” says Netintelligence’s Worms.
And if they’re any good, hire them. “The best way to steal a march on the competition is to steal the competition’s best people,” says Gary Dutton, founder of doubleglazing giant Synseal.
10 Reward your troops
Perks, incentives and a good working environment mean your staff won’t wander into the arms of your competitors. Warren Munson, MD of Inspire Professional Services, keeps his employees loyal with Enterprise Management Incentives, an HM Revenue & Customs share scheme introduced for high-growth companies.
It can reduce employee taxes to around ten per cent from the current staggering 41 per cent. James Day, founder of Urban Golf, has a simpler scheme: “There’s a contractual obligation on my staff not to go off to a competitor!”
11 Partner partners
Suppliers, customers, PR agencies, distributors and couriers can all provide a way in – it’s amazing what people will tell you.
Library House founder and former Dragons’ Den star Doug Richard made a habit of mystery shopping, calling rivals as a customer to uncover information. Don’t worry about pushing the limits of morality, says Richard: “In business you can get away with anything you damn well please!”
12 Read their patents
If your rival holds a patent, find the loophole. When Unilever threatened to put Procter & Gamble out of business with Persil Power, P&G pored over Unilever’s patents until it found a flaw in the science.
“P&G knew well before Persil Power was launched that Unilever was working on a new soap,” says Arthur Weiss, founder of competitive intelligence consultancy Aware.
“It had looked at doing the same itself but abandoned the research because it knew the formula rotted some fabrics. At one point, P&G even approached Unilever directly to warn it of the danger.”
13 Reward loyalty
Got a loyalty card in your wallet? We all do. Offering your customer something extra for coming back again works. And it can work for your suppliers and distributors, too. Innocent Drinks sends a present inside every tenth box of smoothies its distributors open.
14 Copycat
Big retailers are the masters of this strategy. If you can get away with creating a generic product or service that exactly echoes the market leader, it will sell, especially if it’s cheaper. Steal their logo, packaging and customers.
15 Be an inside man
Mark Needham of mobile accessories retailer Widget buys a small number of shares in publicly quoted competitors. “If you register them in your own name, rather than going through a nominee service, you get a full printed annual report and the chance to turn up at the annual general meeting and ask anything you like,” he says.
16 Bend the rules
Harry Briggs, founder of Firefly Tonics, says he’s been on the receiving end of some unscrupulous play in the Greek soft drinks market. “When a rival tried to enter the Greek market, it went round Firefly’s outlets saying their new brand was made by Firefly, but cheaper.
Not surprisingly, we struggled to recover much goodwill after that. Another rival has recently been offering discounts to customers for not stocking rival products.”
17 Win the head-to-heads
Client pitches are where you meet your rivals head to head. Win here, and the war will be yours. Andrew Butt, MD of Enable Software, goes all out to triumph at pitches.
“We provide clients with a fully working prototype system – before they have even committed to buying anything. Our competitors just deliver generic PowerPoint presentations.” Butt’s method works so well he often receives orders within hours of a pitch.
18 Sabotage!
Use devious tactics to get an edge. “Phone one of your competitors and book them into a meeting with a potential customer without informing the customer,” suggests Andrew Pearce, the admirably candid director of voice and web conferencing company Powownow.
19 Undercut them
Being a new entrant to the market has its advantages, says Ravi Geholt, CEO of One Office. “Capitalise on your strengths and your competitor’s weaknesses.
They are big, they already have a client base and so they could lose revenue from price cuts, whereas any new clients you attract with a lower price on the same product is new revenue for your company.”
It was the road to riches for the John Lewis Partnership, which made its reputation on being “never knowingly undersold”.
20 Form an alliance
Partner with a company outside your sector whose product enhances your own, just like Starbucks has done with Borders.
This tactic works particularly well if your ally brings some prestige to the deal. When Kevin Meagher’s firm Intamac developed a mobile phone-controlled security network, he brokered a deal with BT. With a blue-chip behind him, Meagher is dominating the market.
21 Sign a star
Get your business associated with a household name. It can work as a snub to your rivals as well as a plug for your product, as when Vesper Lynd asks Bond in Casino Royale if his watch is a Rolex, to discover that it’s an Omega. Damning for Rolex.
22 Get smelly
“Stand out at trade shows,” says Denise Harrison, co-founder of software firm Liquidlogic. “Seduce passing traffic with the aroma of a melting chocolate fountain!”
23 Steal the limelight
Andrew Pearce of Powownow is ruthless when it comes to getting customer attention. “During a conference remove all the projector leads after your presentation, leaving the next company unable to present.” Arthur Weiss of Aware is equally hard-nosed: he uncovered the launch date of a competitor’s new product so that his client could plan an advertising campaign to steal attention from the launch.
24 Get them drunk
“It’s amazing how much confidential information you can learn over a few drinks. My tip is to always drink what looks like a G&T but is, in fact, water with ice and a slice of lemon, while your competitor is merrily getting sloshed,” says Dominic Allonby, MD of eDirectory.
25 Flaunt your ethics
Being holier than thou is a great way to irritate rivals and woo customers. Innocent Drinks are the masters of this racket, using ecologically sound packaging, offsetting the carbon impact of their office and helping Third World fruit producers to adopt sustainable farming techniques. Charity donations are a useful alternative. Starbucks,
Pampers and the credit card companies are all at it.
26 Be ubiquitous
Retired Starbucks CEO Orin Smith taught the world a lesson with his clustering strategy. Opening several outlets in one area increases market share and, in the long run, revenues although be prepared to take a hit on sales from existing outlets in the short term.
Not only does clustering give you dominance in one location, it can also reduce supplies delivery and management costs.
27 And if you can’t beat ’em…
Sometimes jaw-jaw is better than war-war. Bitter rivals Sun Microsystems and Microsoft spent years and millions of dollars suing and counter-suing each other, before agreeing to a ten-year ceasefire.
Under the terms of the treaty, the two parties will overlook previous patent infringements, and even collaborate on sensitive projects.
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