COMPETITORS: They wanna see you do good, but never better than them. Remember that.
And this is how you can spoil their evil plans.
We all have those competitors who make us feel envy and inspired at the same time, don’t we? But have you asked yourself why? The answer is simple, they are what we want to be, and they are where we want to be specially when it comes to business.
We envy their authority in the industry, we inspire from their life, and we are jealous off the fact that they are a magnet to your prospects and wonder what is it that we are not able to pulse on? It’s time to piggy back their strategy.
Many of my clients and myself have been there, rushing through the madness, stalking them on social media platforms from fake profiles, competing on rates and offers, the one after the another website re-design, gosh would you believe if I say one of my client even bought the competitors product (obviously by another name) only to find his solution is not the same but a level up and a price down, still he isn’t making half as money as his competition.
Happens right, happens all the time, with all of us. Inspite of having the best product and pricing, inspite of those awesome freebies and opt-ins, inspite of those endless engagements on social media what is it that is missing?
May be your answer is LinkedIn! Yes LinkedIn. You might be thinking I am crazy but hold on till you read what I have got to say next (you will thank me for this later, I bet).
Piggy back their strategy
Social media is for friends and family, email is for keeping up with daily work and communication, Google is to find information (mostly free) and they still bring you business don’t they? Then imagine what can a platform that is meant for business do for you? What would it mean for you to be in front of and interact with people at a place where they are for business, real business.
Answer this; which one would you prefer meeting your ideal client in a social gathering or personal space, or in a business event? Both? Yes ideally, but where do you have better chances to strike a conversation (business intended) and tell them about your offerings without making it awkward? I best it’s the later one, and that my friend is LinkedIn.
Lets get to the meat (and if you are a vegetarian chose your fav. food) now. Here are 10 things your competitors can teach you about LinkedIn
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Positioning – Business is all about positioning isn’t it? That’s why someone is paid in paradise and others in peanuts. Learn how to position yourself the way it connects.
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Hangout Points – Identify the LinkedIn groups your competitor is hanging out in. Join them and participate to build authority and slowly attract prospects.
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Content Clues – Analyse what content they share, is it editorials or re-furbished blogs, controversial, industry updates or something else; further analyse how people react to it, which ones are driving more engagement than others and then take your cue.
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Interactions – Leads come from interactions, research how and with whom your client is building rappo and how they are building their prospect base.
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Personal Slice – LinkedIn isn’t really a platform to share your snaps from the party last night, neither it is for sharing the cat videos that you love over food and we all know that. Stalk your competitor(s) to find out the perfect balance of what kind of “personal” is accepted in YOUR industry, to YOUR prospects.
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Social Proofs – Social proofs can make or break your authority, yes they have the power to even break I repeat break your authority, how? If you are putting our testimonials and success stories that do not appear authentic (being authentic isn’t enough, they got to appear authentic as well) you have landed on the wrong foot my friend. Find out how your competitor is using social proofs to build trust and authority.
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Skills Seduction – An easy peasy thing to do but highly effective is to identify which skills they are focusing on and have most endorsements and recommendations for. Take it from there.
While this covers what you can learn from your competition the another important part of LinkedIn is YOUR profile. Now sure if your LinkedIn Profile is Helping, Hurting or Making no difference, take the quiz to find out?
