What do you do if your competitors are outperforming you?

once you recognize this, it's important to analyze their strategies & tactics to identify areas where you can improve. A competitive analysis, focusing on their strengths and weaknesses compared to your own should give you a great idea of what to do and what not to do. From there, you can develop a plan to enhance your products, services, marketing, or operations to regain a competitive edge. It may also be beneficial to seek feedback from customers to understand their perceptions and preferences of your offerings verse the competition

Analyze Competitors: Identify their strategies and strengths. Understand what they do differently. Reevaluate USPs: Ensure your unique selling points meet current customer needs. Innovate: Differentiate your product or service to stand out. Engage Customers: Use feedback to improve offerings. Optimize Operations: Improve efficiency to reduce costs without sacrificing quality. Boost Marketing: Highlight USPs through targeted campaigns and increase online visibility. Develop Talent: Invest in team training to enhance skills. Monitor Performance: Track key metrics and adjust strategies accordingly. Adapting proactively to competition involves innovation, customer engagement, and continuous internal optimization.

To address competitors outperforming you, analyze your business using the 4Ps—Product, Price, Placement, and Promotion. Evaluate product quality, competitive pricing, distribution channel effectiveness, and the impact of marketing campaigns. Utilize both quantitative and qualitative data for a comprehensive assessment. Maintain objectivity in your analysis, seeking external opinions if needed, and avoid overcomplicating the evaluation process.

In my experience, gap identification tends to be over thought. I have found it best to keep it simple and use the 4P lens (specifically for CPG brands/products). Product, Price, Placement, Promotion Leveraging both quant and qual to stack yourself against the competitor. It's key to be objective. If you can't be objective, find someone that can. Family and friends can be brutally honest here, for better or worse :) Don't overthink it.

Once you pinpoint their strengths and your weaknesses, you can address them directly. Focus on what makes you unique and leverage that to stand out. It might be superior customer service, a wider product range, or a specific niche expertise. By analyzing the competitive landscape and identifying areas for improvement, you can strategically adapt and close the gap to reclaim your competitive edge.

When you identify what you are lacking through data analysis in comparison to your competitors, the immediate response is NOT to upgrade your offerings. Yes, you read me right. You may be offering just good while your competitors are offering exorbitantly to take them of the market in couple of months. Your offering needs to be subjected to other form of analysis that aligns with your organization sustainability. Every time is not about increasing offering, you may need other marketing strategy, PR and pay attention to your client's feedbacks.

Let's start with a quote. There are only two things in a business that make money – innovation & marketing, everything else is cost.” — Peter F. Drucker So Improving your marketing is very important if you want to stay relevant in the market. I will focus more on channel selection here because there is a word-limit. To compete effectively with your competitors, channel selection is crucial. Start by understanding your audience deeply through market research & competitor analysis. Identify where your competitors are active and successful. Evaluate each channel's effectiveness based on reach, engagement, & alignment with goals. Embrace an omni-channel approach, integrating online and offline channels for a seamless customer experience.

Evaluating the competition is a valuable exercise. By examining their strategy, strengths, and weaknesses, you can identify areas for improvement. Concentrate on leveraging your own unique strengths to gain a competitive advantage.