Chapter 3

Competing Effectively

You cannot avoid it. If you are operating in a business that has any sales potential, you have competition. Competition is one of the most basic elements of business. The best way to cope with competitive pressures is to identify your true competitors and concentrate your efforts on exploiting their weaknesses—and all businesses have weaknesses, no matter how large or small they may be.

Identifying Your Competitors

There are two general types of competitors:

1.Those who supply services or products that are identical or very similar to yours. This also may be a “commodity” business.

Those who have dissimilar products or services, but are competing for the same disposable income (share of wallet or budget). For ...

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