Get Ready to Compete!

It's time to do a little industrial espionage. You can slip back into your role as Chief of the Commercial Intelligence Section for National Security in order to learn a few things about your competitors. Don't worry, you won't be doing anything illegal or unethical but you will be doing something valuable.

If you've participated in competitive sports, you know that one big part of preparing for a game or meet is spending time checking out your competitors. Let's say you play basketball. It's likely that before a game your coach will show you videos of the opposing team and you'll analyze the strengths and weaknesses of every player. You'll discover that the opposing center stands a little too close to the hoop to rebound balls that bounce off the edge. You'll discover that one of the guards is extra aggressive and might be made to commit fouls easily. You'll see exactly how to use of those weaknesses during the upcoming game to increase your chance of winning.

In your web business, you're also competing. There are a lot of players in the game and your job is to be one of the top ten--or even number one--in your niche.

How You'll Benefit from Knowing Your Competition

Here are ways you benefit from knowing your competition:

• It takes away some of the uncertainty. If your competitors are selling something successfully, then you know there's a market.
• You know what problems your competitors are addressing and what people in your niche accept as products to solve those problems.
• You can identify the strengths and weaknesses of the competitors. You'll avoid competing against them in the areas where they are strong and instead focus on where they are weak.
• Despite the fact that you're competing, you may be able to help each other by joining forces to conquer problems that face all of you.
• You can use their products to do test marketing when you want to see how much demand there is.
• You may be able sell their products through an affiliate program and make money for both of you.

Your 20 Minute Task

The next few 20 minute tasks will center on collecting must-have information about some of your key competitors. But you need to get ready to gather the information so that's what you'll do for the remainder of the present 20 minute task.

You need to make a form with nine columns on it. You can pull out a large sheet of paper and draw lines down it to create nine columns. Or, you can start your favorite spreadsheet program and use it. Either way, you want to create nine columns and label them as follows:

Seeing the column headings should give you an idea of what you're going to find out about each competitor.

When you're done, create a file folder named "Competitor Intelligence." Put the sheet in it if you did this with paper and pencil. Otherwise, save the spreadsheet file with a name you'll remember. Then jot down the name on a sticky note and put it in the folder so you'll remember it when you start the next 20 minute task.