Understanding Competition

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TRANSCRIPT:
Avish: Alright, in an earlier section we mentioned that you want to find a topic that has some competition. But you actually think that you can use your competition by understanding and utilizing it to make your seminars better?

Fred: Sure, absolutely. Because, you know, it’s competitive research happens in every field happens for, you need to see what the competition is doing in order to maximize your results yourself.

Avish: Okay, the first thing you said to go to competitors’ events. So if I find someone doing something similar to me and I go to their event, what am I looking for that event?

Fred: Well, I think you’re looking for everything really, you’re looking it at the entire process. How did their event get promoted? What kind of a website did they have? What kind of guarantees they did offer? What kind of bonuses did they give you for early registration? What kind of structure once you’re at the event did they use? Did you feel that it was a successful? Did they do that well? What would you done differently? How was the, do they hand out some kind of workbook? Did they have other vendors in the back room that we’re paying to be there as sponsors. I would look at every aspect of the arena. Every topic that we cover in this particular program, someone should go in there when they go to competitors’ event with a check list before, during and after elements of any competitors’ event. And rate them and copy what they like that is good and do it better. And take what they didn’t do well and do those things differently to make sure your event does not have the same problems.

Avish: Okay and so what about before and after the competitors’ event? Should you get on their in mailing and email list?

Fred: Yes, it is probably going to be a good idea to see how they are going about doing their promotions. So if you see somebody who is a competitor, even before they start to advertise a seminar, you may want to put yourself on their mailing list. Start to accumulate all the things that they send out. See how they promote. Watch their follow up once you’ve gone to the event. Just get the whole big picture of what people are competing against you’re doing.

Avish: Okay, now once you’ve assessed the strengths and weaknesses doing, going to the events, being on the lists, you suggest that you kind of look for the gaps that might be available. What do you mean by that?

Fred: Well, what happens that often times, if you’re in a field that’s big enough to have different sort of areas that you can approach or attack. For example, for many, many years I was involved, I did a bunch of seminars for the catering industry. And I still own cateringsucccess.com. So for that industry, there was a guy who’s doing a lot of seminars. And we looked at his events and actually attended one and I saw that there was a big gap in terms of the marketing side and I said okay. So I said, “why don’t we concentrate not on, you know catering is a business. But catering, how do you get clients?” And so I saw a gap in the market that he wasn’t covering and it was received pretty well in the industry and then quickly after we started doing ours, he added a big section on big section on marketing to his, so that he wouldn’t feel as if he was not doing what we we’re doing.

Avish: Got it. Okay. Now just because they’re your competitors doesn’t mean you can’t work with them. So you suggest that you actually try to partner with your competitors first?

Fred: Yeah I think that the first approach is to try and see whether not they are open to some kind of a partnership. If people are intelligent about things, nobody just goes to one person’s events or nobody just buys one person’s products. They usually, if you’re really interested in the topic of fields, a profession, what you do is you’re trying get everybody’s perspective on it. So it’s good to initially trying to approach your competitors and say “hey look, I know that anybody use, can we go to my stuff? We’ll probably end up finding your stuff and maybe going to that buying your products or buying my products. But you know, if you’d like to we could probably work together so both of us can share some of the money when someone goes to the other one.” So that would allow you. Now when you approach people like this you’re going to get usually one of two responses. “Oh great that make sense” or “What are you crazy? You’re my competition.”
So I would expect both of those and be pleasantly surprised to people agreed to work with you. Now, if people don’t want to work with you and they are very adamant about it, well then certainly then you can use your approach of sort of attacking them head on. Not really, certainly, you want to make the differentiation between your event and theirs and of course showing how much better yours is. And even in situations like that, I have to do that for a while if you’re fairly successful they may relent and come back to you and say “Oh by the way, two years ago I said No, no I think it might be in actually good idea in saying yes.” And usually that happens after you’ve started capture a much, much larger share to market. Maybe sometime even maybe larger than them and now they’re grasping and wanting to get it in which case I still don’t see this bad idea to give them a piece of action for real any lead that they send you.

Avish: Right. So you don’t want your ego to get in the way and be like, “Oh and you said no to me two years ago, so I’m gonna say no to you now.”

Fred: Yeah I think that can be fine, assuming that you have unlimited dollars in the bank and you don’t need any more money. But if you’re going to hit — if you’re trying to maximize revenue, a good thing to do to maximize revenues is to minimize ego.

Avish: Okay and speaking of ego, you know one of the things, when you have competitors some people believe that people will only go to one person. But in your experience, the attendee will actually be interested in checking many. As you say, they’ll go from guru to guru.

Fred: Absolutely.

Avish: So it’s not worth obsessing over the competition, because just because someone goes to one doesn’t mean they still won’t come to yours.

Fred: No, people tend to be very promiscuous in their pursuit of business ideas and success. And so I wouldn’t really worry about the fact that you’re competition is offering similar events or selling similar products. I mean if that were the case, they were only be like Mc Donald’s, no Wendy’s, no Hardees, no Carl’s Jr.

Avish: Very true. Any other tips or advice on understanding to utilize your competition?

Fred: Those of the major ones I think that we cover. I think, it’s important now because very few people in the seminar industry do this. And if you want to be successful don’t just listen to this and do nothing. Listen to this and take some action.

Avish: Okay, great stuff Fred.