Eliminate The Competition
Ok - I’m back, as promised.
With one of the most powerful business strategies ever developed.
Some years ago I went to a money changer to exchange my local currency for China’s Renminbi for my trip to Shanghai, China (called the “Paris of the East” by Lonely Planet).
This particular money changer was situated in a plaza where there were about 6 other money changers around, in close proximity.
Being the season traveller that I am (even though I absolutely hate to travel), I quickly went around all the money changers to check out their respective rates.
I found one that gave me the best rates for my money to get the most Renminbi in return, and went away happy.
But then a while later something struck me as odd.
Really, really odd.
2 of the money changers were situated practically next to each other.
Another 2 were just a few feet away.
Not far from those 2 were yet another 2 money changers.
All offered different rates for different currencies.
Some offered low rates, while others offered higher rates for the various currencies.
And from what I can see - ALL of them had customers.
Now what’s happening here?
I would expect other travellers to be going around all the money changers to compare rates, and then settle for my money changer who gave the best rates for most of the currencies being offered.
Especially when it was so easy to do as every money changer was in close proximity with each other!
The answer was in what I couldn’t see.
And a Business In Your Pajamas! lesson.
Which is:
Ownership.
The money changer owned EVERY outlet I saw there.
Oh yes.
He ran one of those outlets, and the rest were run by his brothers, sisters and cousins.
I’m quite sure his parents and grandparents were involved too.
Each one of his outlets offered different rates for each currency.
And each one was positioned at a different location.
Because of this, each outlet would get customers due to the following reasons:
1. Some would shop around for the cheapest rates
And so the ones offering the lowest rates would get customers.
2. Some wouldn’t bother shopping around
And so the ones offering the highest rates would get customers too. Some do this due to plain laziness, or ignorance, or never thought of it, or just because the amount they’re changing were too small to make a huge difference.
And when you think about it, the above just about covered every Prospect for the money changer!
WHEN ALL YOUR COMPETITORS ARE REALLY YOU:
1. You can make more money by increasing your price without adding any more value to justify that increase!
2. You’ll make more money than just having a single outlet alone - even though all of your outlets can be considered as a single collective outlet, only placed strategically apart!
Practically ALL the Prospects who found one of your outlets are going to be your customers.
Because how many have time to come back again another day? Changing money is usually something done at the last moment - so the money changer really has an great advantage in this aspect.
LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION
Now one of the most important aspects of a retail outlet is in its physical location.
The right location will get you lots of walk-in Prospects without even trying.
When this happens, half your battle is won. There’s really no need for you to market your store and incur extra expenses in doing so - unless you want to, of course.
(In fact, some retail outlets’ business are so totally dependent on walk-in customers which in turn are dependent on their locations that additional marketing isn’t truly necessary.)
The other half is in getting them to buy your products or services once they’re in your store.
However, with the right locations and a competitive pre-emptive strategy in place where you compete with yourself under different names, you can literally focus on just running the business without having to think about marketing, or beating your competition!
Your money is earned just about automatically - and you earn MORE of it!
This concept doesn’t just apply to money changers only - where the set up cost for a money changing outlet is very minimal compared to large retail stores.
It works for Wedding/Bridal shops too where the set up is more elaborate and costly.
I happened to know of one Bridal shop that set up another one just next door to its original shop, under a different name, offering higher-priced packages.
Its customers think they’re looking at 2 competitors side by side.
In this case the higher-priced shop merely provides different styles of wedding gowns or different photo album packages but they’re not necessarily of more value. It “competes” with its other shop mainly on its Prospects’ tastes and preferences for different designs.
Thus there is no “added value” in terms of the actual products/services being offered and performed - except in the customers’ own minds.
With 2 shops side by side, their owner set up the flow of Prospects for each of his outlets by using the other.
Powerful, no? 
Stay tuned for my next post as I talk about eliminating your competition in cases where location is irrelevant, using this very same strategy.
You don’t want to miss that one, for sure.
Warm Regards,
Sen Ze
P.S. You can link to this post by using the following URL:
http://www.SenZe.com/business-blog/competition/making-your-competition-irrelevant.htm
