Give your competitor his daily bread

 Don’t worry, this is not pulpit oration but a pragmatic business posture that changes the way you allow your competitors to gain his market share manifestly as a magnanimous gesture but with a hidden intention of having the space domination, which the Chinese are practising in the global trade today. 

Buyer psychology works this way: they like wide selection of goods to choose from to suit to their taste and fit to their purse. So what you do is to get closer to your competitors by showing friendly disposition and opening stores next to him in malls and supermarkets. You are not doing anything wrong. Instead you are just copying his playbook in your business strategy

You are placed in a vantage point as the proximity to your main customer gives you a weighted say as an alternative shop for his stall. Evidently, you get lot of info and insight into the type of customers walking into his store and the bags of purchase they carry when leaving the stall.

Apropos you can unearth how the sales staff of your opposite handle customers in their store and the type of goods that are moving and the ones that remain as laggards.

Once you have broad idea of the purchase patterns you can factor that into your own equation. One is to determine the equilibrium between the quantum of sales and the number of items that fit into the Pareto Chart. You can also develop another set of equation where you share visibility with few competitors in a particular mall or in a floor of that mall in the form of equilibrium between you and the rest of the opponents.

In a bilateral situation where there is only one worthy opponent you take a significant share that is much less than 50% in the beginning and allow your opponent lion share. Over time you pitch your sales so that you get close to him but never try to better him. This business strategy gives overall weight in a single opponent scenario.

Taking it to the edge, you go for trilateral or perhaps multilateral situation where you have two or more firms competing with you. Interestingly, you tend to favour one of your opponents and share business intelligence with him but keep the other opponent in the dark. This business strategy works in a truly amazing manner because both of you leverage on common business intelligence to have an almost similar figure say 40% of the sales for both and the rest be left to the remaining opponent.

 

Cheers!

 

Muthu Ashraff Rajulu

Business Strategist

Mobile: + 94 777 265677

E-mail:   cosmicgems@gmail.com

Blog:   Business Strategist