Why Your Business Should Always Play Nice with the Competition

You’re always going to have business competition. It doesn’t matter how niche your industry is, or how boutique your product is, someone will be in competition with you.

The question you have to answer is, “What are you going to do about it?

There are a variety of tactics for dealing with competition. You can bash them, undercut them, outrun them, smear them or simply ignore them.

Sometimes, how you respond to the competition depends on how they’re treating you. If you have to duck; duck. If you have to buy them out; buy them out. If you have to pivot; pivot. If you have to increase your marketing efforts; do it.

There’s one strategy for dealing with competitors that is counterintuitive, but startlingly effective. Simply put, play nice.

What does it mean to play nice with the competition?

To play nice is to do the following:

• Don’t publicly badmouth your competitors.
• Don’t create public competitive matrices to prove your products’ superior value.
• Don’t undercut your competitors’ marketing efforts, including social media and paid ads.
• Don’t get into a price war.
• Don’t copy everything your competitor does.

But it’s more than just a list of don’ts. Playing nice is an entire reinvention of business culture.

One of the greatest examples of this give-and-share mentality comes from Michael Stelzner, founder of Social Media Examiner.

When launching and growing his first business, WhitePaperSource, he realized that an awkward coexistence with his competition wasn’t beneficial to anyone. It didn’t serve his customers. It didn’t serve his business. It was a dead end.

Instead, he chose a path of coopetition. Coopetition, a portmanteau of cooperation and competition, describes how companies can function as independent competitive businesses, yet share in some ways.

Here is one description of coopetition:  

Coopetition takes place when companies that are in the same market work together in the exploration of knowledge and research of new products, at the same time that they compete for market-share of their products and in the exploitation of the knowledge created

How can this work within your industry's competitive environment?

That depends on the nature of your industry and competitors. Let me show you a few ways in which it’s worked in my industry:

• Do guest blogging. I guest blog in a lot of different places, even on sites that are competing for my same market share. You’ll find a whole group of competitors all writing guest blogs on the same site. This isn’t a problem at all. We are each sharing our knowledge and contributing to the advancement of our industry.
• Combine your knowledge. I learn a lot from my competitors, and I hope they learn a few things from me. By interacting offline and online, we discuss what we’re learning and how our industry is changing.
• Host webinars. This strategy has worked brilliantly for Michael Stelzner and Social Media Examiner. I’ve tried it in my businesses with similar success.

How to succeed in friendly coopetition

All this talk about being nice might seem a little romantic.

After all, how are you going to succeed in life and business if things don’t get a little rough?

Don’t worry. You must always maintain your professional demeanor and kind persona, but you can still deal out some powerful business moves that will skyrocket your business past the competition.

Keep these tips in mind:

• You don’t have to agree. Coopetition is not the same thing as agreeing on all disputed topics. Healthy disagreement is a good thing.
• You don’t have to tell them your secrets. One of the best strategies to gain an advantage is to be unpredictable. Keep your power moves close to your vest. Concealing your best-laid plans is the best way to unleash them with explosive power.
• You don’t have to work together. Just because coopetition can be a good thing, it doesn’t mean that your competitor wants to do it. If they refuse to have anything to do with you, just leave them alone.

Playing nice with the competition does not mean lowering yourself to their level, never superseding them, or handing them a share of your customers.

Instead, try these kindly business boosting moves:

• Snatch up a new market. The reason why you even have competition to begin with is because you share a common market. Logically, one way to outwit and outmaneuver the competition is to advance into a new market. This may require releasing another product or differentiating your existing product.
• Disrupt. One of the best ways to launch a business straight out of orbit is to disrupt your industry. Disruption is a buzzword, sure. Everyone looks at Uber and Airbnb, and wants to “disrupt.” Still there are some strategy-backed methods for developing a disruptive model. My article on Inc. shares some thoughts on the process.
• Calm your customer’s fears. Recognize that in a crowded field, your customers are fearful. They know about your product and your competitor’s product. They fear choosing the wrong one, and making a bad choice. Use the risk-reversal strategy to woo them. In other words, if they aren’t satisfied with their purchase, you take on a risk. I’m not talking about a simple money back guarantee (though that’s a good idea!). I’m talking about something like a double money back guarantee if they aren’t satisfied. The reason why this is so effective is because customers often make a purchase in an attitude of fear. If you provide an alternative that calms their fears, you win.
• Overwhelm your customers with appreciation. Customer service is one of the most underrated business building moves. If you can increase the quality of interaction and the extent of attention bestowed on your customers, you will have a high retention rate. Even in a transactional one-off purchase commercial environment, you can unleash spectacular customer service. This is exactly what Zappos did, turning customer service into WOW encounters.

Conclusion

Play nice, because you never know how things are going to work out.

• You might pivot, and need their services.
• You might buy them, or they might by you, or you might merge.
• You might collaborate on a new project together.
• You might share a stage at an industry conference.
• You might want to guest blog on their website.

The competition is often the bitterest enemy and can be the closest collaborator. I recommend turning the traditional rivalry on its head, and viewing your competition as coopetition instead.

How do you interact with your closest competitors?