Peak Your Profits! 6 Ways to Defeat Competitors

CRAZY COMPETITORS!

If you play the “game of business” long enough, you’ll be blessed with worthy opponents. They’re honest. Smart. Aggressive. Innovative. And customer-focused.

They actually force you to get better. Because if you don’t, you’ll quickly become a business casualty. However, all competitors are not created equal.

As a client of mine once declared, “I’ve gotta be smarter, than my dumbest competitor!”

Therefore, on occasion, your competitors will make stupid decisions. Remember, that’s their choice, not yours. You can only control, that which you can control. You can either be pro-active to your marketplace, competition, prospects and customers or re-active. Re-active is also a choice. Yet the key, is how you react.

When I was in grammar school, I wrestled. I always remember my coach stressing, “For every move your opponent makes, you have at least one counter move.” His point, despite the immediate obstacle or momentary setback, you can “escape” harm or “create” positive leverage with your next decision/action.

In business and life, that decision can necessitate action that’s swift and bold. Or, when appropriate, silence or a totally different course or pursuit produces the right results.

When clients have sought my counsel on how to “react” to a competitor’s promotion, pricing strategy or other business issues, I’ve often replied, “You don’t.”

Instead, I urge them to focus on innovation vs. imitation. Dynamic creation vs. knee-jerk reaction. This enables them to focus on the right results and positive outcomes they help others attain.

To devote too much time to how you “whup competitors” or “respond” to their decisions is a physical, emotional and financial drain of energy and resources. Yet, when necessary, here are some interesting suggestions for “defeating opponents” (or how to defeat competitors). They come from a totally unexpected source.

With 3 kids, all graduates of Glenbrook South High School (GBS) in Glenview, Illinois (a northern suburb of Chicago), we’ve spent lots of time at GBS for sporting events, concerts, dance competitions, plays, variety shows and volunteer activities.

One of the things I enjoyed doing while at school, was wandering the halls. There was always cool stuff hanging on the walls and windows (artwork, quotes, newspaper headlines, magazine stories, etc). I spotted the following tips, on a training room bulletin board. They’re excerpts from “WIN Magazine”, a publication dedicated to amateur wrestling. While they were written for the benefit of the high school wrestler who is eyeball-to-eyeball with an opponent on the mat, you’ll see their immediate adaptation and application to your life and business (how to defeat competitors):

• Nothing your opponent can do to you will take you out of your intense, focused game plan
• Nothing will phase you, nothing will bother you
• Nothing will derail your tenacious, relentless attack
• Breaking your opponent is not about causing an injury, it’s about your will to “fight”, to concentrate, to be confident (all of which, are escalating), while your opponents are declining
• Your desire causes your opponent to have self-doubt (mentally, physically and emotionally)
• Your will to win produces negative thoughts in your opponent; they begin to wonder about themselves, “Am I too tired?” or “Am I over-matched?”
• And they ask if you are “Too tough. Too determined. And too good!”

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