Devise (or Hone) a Sharp Competitive Edge

In a crowded marketplace, it’s important to build on your successes, learn from failures and continue to take actions that keep your business strategy fresh, sharp and ahead of the competition. One of the myriad of ways to help your business succeed is maintaining your competitive edge. Defined, a competitive edge is your personal combination of assets, tools, innovations, ideas, implementations, plans, creativity, abilities and boldness that separates you from others in your industry. In short, when you activate and leverage that which defines you as a business, you’re honing your competitive edge. That is because in all the businesses that exist, there’s only one with your particular recipe. Your "secret sauce" can help customers notice you, decide to do business with you, stay loyal to your brand and refer people to you.

If you’re just starting out in business - or if you feel your competitive edge may be wearing away, fear not! Here are some things to consider to sharpen the blade and get you moving ahead of your competition.

Determine your goals for market domination. How high do you want to aim? Choose a lofty but reachable goal for your business’ growth in a reasonable timeframe. It’s important to really set upon your goal mindfully because if you don’t have a target to strive for, you won’t be able to determine who your competition is or how you’re going to best them.

Do some reconnaissance. Get curious about how your competition is conducting their sales. Pay attention to their:

• offerings (merchandise and services) - Do they focus on one-off, or do they package their offerings? Do they specialize in fewer, more exclusive sales, or on volume? What specific market(s) do they go after, if any.

• style - How do they present themselves? Serious? Formal? Laid back? Outdoorsy? Young and hip? Bohemian? Cutting edge? Health conscious? Fun-loving? Big-hearted? Eco-conscious? Family oriented?

• apparent direction - Where does it appear their goals lie? It’s important to pay attention to the competition, even as you try to best them. Who are they serving well? What markets are they missing? Why?

Take inventory of what you have to offer. Consider every attribute - it’s all grist for the mill. Yes, even that which seems on the surface to be negative.

Redefine your "challenging" qualities as necessary:

• Beginner = Fresh eyes and energetic
• Old hat = Experienced and skilled
• Small budget = Resourceful
• Short on time = Efficient
• Small team = Streamlined and agile
• Numerous failures = Learns from mistakes and resilient
• Late starter = Second wind and wise

Remember to include so-called "soft skills" in your inventory, like:

• Intuition
• Creativity
• Dreams big
• Patience
• Good listener
• Optimism
• Good people-skills
• Strong negotiation skills
• Teacher/mentor
• Open-minded

Once you’ve assembled your own list of assets, you have in your possession a toolkit with which to build a competitive edge that will propel you past the competition.

The answers to the above questions will provide you with intel to make a lot of decisions.

Devise ways to use what you have to your advantage. Once you know over whom you want that competitive edge, how they serve their market, what attributes you have with which to forge strategy, new approaches to your business will become clear. These revelations will help you see how your unique skill set can serve customers in new and compelling ways. You may be inspired to create new offerings, market to new market, market differently to an existing market or go off in a new direction entirely.

You can gain a competitive edge over your competition whether you’re a new business or a long-established one using the same exercise. It’s a matter of choosing a goal, paying attention to what your competition is doing, then putting your unique combination of attributes to task to innovate new ways of simply selling smarter, more effectively, and with greater ease.

How do you keep your competitive edge sharp!