How To Analyze the Competition in Your Market

When you start a new business, it’s a good idea to get a picture of all the other players in the market that you will compete against. Otherwise, you may find yourself outmatched and closing your doors sooner than expected. Discover how to analyze the competition in your market so that you can gain an edge that will allow your company to flourish.

Determine Who Your Competitors Are

Doing a competitive analysis can be critical to your business’s survival. For example, if you plan to open a laboratory business, the process can help you determine what lab services you should offer to your market. You may find that others are already meeting the needs of customers in your region, and you should try a different specialty.

You should begin this process by looking at the market and determining which competitors offer products or services similar to yours. You may also find you have competitors who offer different products but gear them toward your customer base.

Research Your Competitors

The next step in analyzing the competition in your market is to perform background research on these companies. Look at what they offer, how much they charge, and how they’re advertising these products and services. You should also determine how far their services reach and if their business will extend into your territory.

It helps to find out what their customers think of their services. That information may provide you with tips on how you can meet your customers’ needs. For example, do customers feel like a specific service offered by your competition is lacking something? You can take that information and fill that void.

After that, take the time to determine what your competitors do well and where they could improve. This information may give you an idea of how you can outperform your competitors and succeed in your market.

Don’t forget to look at how they sell their products. You may have competitors that work strictly out of physical locations, and others work via the web. Investigate the size of their organization and who some of their suppliers are. That may give you a sense of the level of quality that they use in the products that they supply to customers.

Look at Your Own Strengths

Now that you have all this information about your competitors, look inward at your own company. What will your strengths and advantages be in the market?Is there something that you can offer that will help you stand out from this competition? You might find that there’s an unserved customer need in the market. You may be able to take advantage of this need and use it to help your business thrive.After you perform this analysis, your business will be in a much better place. You will know how to create a strategy that will make you a formidable adversary against your competition. Hopefully, it will put you in a position to win customers over.