Thank God for Competitors and Market Research

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.

    Don Doman is a published author, video producer, and corporate trainer. He owns the business training site Ideas and Training (http://www.ideasandtraining.com), which he says is the home of the no-hassle "free preview" for business training videos. He also owns Human Resources Radio (http://www.humanresourcesradio.com), which broadcasts HR and business training information, program previews, and training samples from some of the world's great training speakers twenty-four hours a day. You can listen and learn on Human Resources Radio.