Being The Competition

By Louis J. Robin

L J Robin Marketing

I have this friend who is a product rep for various product having to do with the tourist industry.  I asked him about taking on a line of tee shirts because in every tourist store I have ever been into I see tee shirts. His answer was there was too much competition at the gift shows where he shows his product. Gee I think, he doesn’t want to be showing tees because there is competition. Now I think to myself I guess all the companies showing their line of tees at these gift shows feel the same way. Oh wait. They are showing their tees. So I guess they are not afraid of being the competition.  Which brings us to this article. Stop being afraid of the competition and make the competition afraid of you.

I get this all the time on my forum. “Gee Lou, how do I compete with the other businesses in my area?” I have a simple answer. You do the same thing they do, only better.

Just what does that mean  “Only better?” Well I ask how is their customer service? How are their time lines to get product done? How is their pricing?  Who are they turning away? Do they go out and market to the schools and businesses? Do they have a brick and mortar store where they just wait for customers to come in?  Do they have a website to show what they can do? 

OK, you may not know the answers to most of the above questions but if you don’t why not? Because if you did know the answers then you would not be asking me what to do.  Lets work together here. I will make this painless.

First get a pencil and paper. No don’t go to the computer to do this because you are liable to start answering emails or worse play some game and get distracted. Now write down the questions above. If you noticed the first question was about their customer service. If you don’t have superior customer service to start with you are in trouble. Now I asked how was their customer service, actually I don’t care. What I want to know is how is your customer service? Because remember we want him to find out about you being the competition. So jot down what you can to improve your service. Are you operating hours long enough? Are you available to answer customer’s questions? Do you follow up on phone calls? Do you have a slogan like “Superior service to all or your order is free?” Ok maybe that scares you a little. But did you know that bad service could cost you an order so it might as well have been free. But I bet if that slogan hung in my shop and I read it everyday or my employees read it everyday then it would make me more aware of the service I give.

Ok, Now what are the competitions time lines in getting an order done. I would rather turn down an order than tell a customer I can do the impossible. You need to know what you can or can not do with any order.

I told one client that I would have an order done in 2 weeks. That is pretty basic for the size of the order I had. Now I knew I could beat this and I did. But I wasn’t stressed about the time frame, which helps because rushing can cause production problems.  I actually did it in 7 days and the customer was amazed. They said the other guys they used before always took at least 2 weeks. My answer was “Well I know you needed them for your event” Happy customer, future order.  You may want to break down your time lines based on a quantity order or type of product being printed. And always give yourself room. Remember what I said, you rush an order and you may be giving the order away for free.

What about pricing? This is another question asked on my forum a lot. How do you price your product? This could be an article unto itself so I will just say first, know your cost. Break it down. You have apparel cost, ink or transfer cost, labor, design time. Question, what are you worth an hour? Many people fail to pay them selves. Especially those operating a small business out of the home. They charge for the apparel and they pay for the screening or transfer cost but they don’t charge for their time. If I get $40.00 an hour and I can do 30 shirts an hour then my cost per shirt is $1.33 plus all the other cost incurred. One thing is important. You need to be fair and not greedy. There are many formulas out there for figuring your cost of product.

Who is your market? And what are you doing to get that business? The answer to who is your market is everyone. Don’t be shy about telling people you are in the business. Everyone knows someone. Leads are important. If I was to start a list here of your potential market it would be long. Let’s do a few for fun. You can add to this list. Schools, school organizations, teams, both school and local sport teams. I could break that down to the different sports and I could break it down further to male and female. Church, church groups. Fund-raising groups this could cover charity organizations and events and also sprit wear for schools.  Businesses, family reunions.

So what are you doing to get that business? For most of you the answer is nothing. I talked to one lady that I was mentoring and she said the school where her daughter goes to already has someone doing their spirit wear. Then she found out the company was not even local it was an on line company that the person in charge of the buying found and she never had any personal contact with the order taker.  So I told her make an appointment and show them how you a local business can do the same thing and probably save them money.

Keep in mind that schools are not private so they should accept bids. If not then ask why. Here is how I got a very large order from a school, actually 2 schools. I was in a drive through line at Starbucks getting a much-needed coffee before going to pick up some product. So I am on the road and my wife calls me on my cell phone and asks me was I at Starbucks earlier. I said yes. She said an administrator for a local school was behind me in line and saw my number on the back of my SUV that advertised my business. I returned the call and made an appointment. I received a nice size order from them but she spread the word to another school and I received a large order from the second school. 

You can’t set up a business and not let the world know. Here is an idea. If you live in a nice size city pull up Earth Google and plug in that you want to see schools and churches. Now you know where they are all located. Click on the little icon and you get all the information you need to make an appointment.  To find a type of business just place the type of business you want to see and all the addresses will pop up. To make this short you just need to get busy with a marketing plan to get the business. Just remember there is no reason why you can’t be the competition to another business or an on line company.

What people want are the things I talked about. Great customer service, fair prices, reasonable time lines, and quality product. It should be what the competition offers it is what you offer and that makes you the competition.