Last Updated on March 31, 2026 by Dave Schoenbeck
Believe it or not, competition in business is an opportunity to take your business to the next level and ensure market share growth. Competition is a source of information about what benefits and features appeal to your target market. However, the only way you can enjoy these advantages is to craft a proper reaction to competition.
Competition Impact on Business
One of the most common misconceptions about competition in business is that losing customers to competitors can be avoided simply by reducing negative experiences with your business. Yet surprisingly, 67% of customers leave companies because of perceived indifference rather than outright negative experiences.
Pacifying angry customers alone is not a competitive strategy. Businesses today must do more than that to keep customers. Here are four steps to creating an effective competitive strategy to help you retain your market share and customers.
4 Steps to Crafting Your Reaction to Competition
The secret to beating business competition is to be proactive rather than reactive. Retain and grow your position relative to your competitors by following these 4 steps.
1. Know your competition well
The first step to staying ahead of the competition in business is to know who your competitors are and what they are doing. Know your significant competitors and keep up with what they are doing weekly. Create a competitive analysis and keep it up to date as the facts change. Your research doesn’t have to be complicated or perfect. If you have one, you will be ahead of the game.
2. Understand your competitive advantage
Please answer immediately and concisely if asked how you differ from your competitors. Can your salespeople? Can every employee? Your USP, your unique selling proposition, is one of the most critical aspects of your company. If you don’t know exactly how you are different from others in the marketplace, you and your employees will struggle to communicate that difference regularly.
3. Be willing to accept that your competition might have an edge
Competitors have overtaken Toys “R” Us, Bed Bath & Beyond, Blockbuster, and countless others in the last decade because they grossly underestimated them. Just because a competitor is smaller, younger, or looks different on the surface (e.g., e-commerce rather than brick-and-mortar retail) does not mean they aren’t a threat. In business competition, avoid institutional overconfidence that lets competitors overtake. Be aware of the advantages competition might have over you, and be agile enough to pivot rapidly if necessary.
4. Aggressively sell against the competition
Competition in business requires you to be bold and clear when communicating with your target market. You can use that information to sharpen your selling and marketing language when you know who your competition is, what they are doing, and where they are weak. Help your prospects decide to choose you over your competition, and help your customers remember why they already have.
While you may feel competition is your biggest headache, the right strategy can turn competitors into your biggest motivation to improve and innovate. Ready to take your competition by storm? Please complete my contact form to schedule a complimentary meeting on how to react to competition in your business and marketplace.
Coach Dave
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