Like a house without a roof, a business strategy that doesn’t take into account your key competitors is simply incomplete. Now it might seem strange that the actions of others should feature so highly in the strategy for your business, but there is method behind the statement.
In business, one of the key areas you can thrive is by creating a product or service that makes you stand out in the marketplace. In the world of mortgages and protection products, it’s about offering a reason why clients should come to you for your advice. However, it’s not easy to stand out and stay one step ahead of the game unless you have your eyes open to what your competitors are doing.
Simple steps
It’s not hard to do. Become a business investigator – go online, do your research and find out what you’re up against. Map out your local area and the firms around you, think about your potential clients and where they might go. Think laterally as well, are my competitors local firms, or might my clients go to some of the national firms? What are their options?
Mortgage advisers are also in the strange position where their suppliers (Lenders/Providers) are also their competition. Why are your customers going direct to lender when remortgaging and what can you do to ensure this doesn’t happen?
Think about your competitors carefully – ask yourself, why are they doing it? When did they start? What issues are they facing? What do they offer clients that I don’t? What do they not do so well?
Ask yourself the hard questions – look at what you’re doing well now, and can you do it any better? What actually makes my mortgage advice stand out over my competitors?
Read the customer reviews, learn from their mistakes, and look back into the past to find out if anyone tried and failed – why did they fail? Careful analysis will allow you to turn your competitors weaknesses into your strengths.
Look after the little details
By mapping out your competitors, looking at their strengths and their weaknesses, you can see how you can give a better service. Often, it’s nothing revolutionary, but a simple set of customer-centric improvements that overall make your business much more appealing to your clients. If you do it well, they’ll come back to you time and time again, and recommend you to their friends.
We’ve put together a checklist of questions you can ask yourself about your competitors to get yourself started, don’t ever be afraid to get stuck in and do some digging around!
20 Starter Questions to Ask Yourself
- Who are my nearest competitors?
- What are they doing?
- How are they doing it?
- When did they start?
- How did they start?
- What issues are they facing?
- What about the industry as a whole?
- Who’s setting the benchmark and how can you improve on it?
- Are there things that you think other players aren’t doing, and you could do better?
- What are their clients saying?
- Would clients trust them?
- What makes them stand out in the area?
- Is anyone complaining about them?
- What’s their online and social media presence like?
- Have any of them closed down?
- Have any of them had any serious problems in the past?
- Have any of them expanded or diversified into new areas?
- How do I differentiate?
- How do I innovate?
- How can I do that better?
