How to Increase Profits by Knowing Your Product and Competition

02 Sep

Posted by YC as Make Money Online, Internet Marketing

During my weekend shopping trip to IT show Comex ‘07 here in Singapore, while trying to secure good bargains for a new laptop and LCD TV for my aunts, sales representatives continuously inundated me with the same one-dimensional marketing proposition.

“There is no point checking out the other offers available at the other booths, because they’re all generally the same. In fact, if you purchase this laptop from us, you will get a free memory upgrade to X GB!”

Hopping over to the next booth, their laptops came with that amount of memory. :)

All this illustrates 2 things:

- You realise how ill-prepared many of these sales reps are. The companies or themselves have not gone through the necessary own product and marketing training;

- Despite claims, they have not done their field research of other competing products and marketing.

Both these could have been avoided easily if the necessary research, planning and education had been applied to their marketing effort. In doing so, both companies and employees would be clear on what their business and product offered, and how they differed from competitors. With this, they would be in a position to create more value, better bonuses and greater incentives for people to buy in.

The following methods can be used to arrive at this position:

1. Compare the benefits of your product with that of your competitors’. Come up with new and better benefits over that of your competitors’, that you could provide;

2. Note the unique benefits of your product;

3. Using all the case studies that you have personally encountered, and also that of the most successful businesses and people, determine what the 3 best benefits and selling points their products have;

4. Which of these could be applied to YOUR product?

With these methods, you will gain a clearer and thorough understanding of the benefits and advantages your product has to offer over others’. From the resulting marketing to the clients, you would be able to iterate your selling points and assist them in making well-informed buying choices. By building credibility in showing your market and product understanding, clients are more often than not, likely to select your product. And you.