Who is your competition? When you read that question, at least a handful of other company names should pop into your head. It’s important to know the companies you’re competing with for revenue, and it’s equally important to understand how you compete with them. Take a look at the eight major types of business competition:
- Brand recognition. The power your company name has with its customer base.
- Customer relationships. The overall experience customers have when interacting with your business.
- Business reputation. The expectations customers have of your business and its employees.
- Sales. The profit you earn from the sale of your products and services.
- Products. The tangible items you offer your customers.
- Price. The price you charge for products and services.
- Cost. The cost you pay for products.
- Location. Where you are physically located or the ease at which customers can choose your business over others.
Gain a Competitive Advantage Through Training
Your business gains a competitive advantage by doing something better than your competition. Look back at the list of eight major types of business competition above. Which ones can be impacted by training? At first glance it might not seem like all these factors are related to training, but in truth, everything about your company is related to employee training. Here are just a few examples:
- Your brand strategy may be set from above, but employees are responsible for implementing it. They can’t do that without effective training.
- Customer loyalty has everything to do with training. No matter what kind of business you’re in, it costs more to gain new customers than it does to sell to the ones you already have.
- When your employees are trained on your company’s mission and vision, their behavior directly affects the reputation of your business.
- Products don’t sell themselves, your employees have to sell them. This applies to some industries more than others, but the bottom line is that when employees are trained on topics such as product knowledge and add-on sales, you’ll out-sell your competition.
Even business competition factors such as products, price, cost, and location can be impacted by employee training. If you have a competitive disadvantage in any of these areas, you can use training to fill the gaps. When you grow your employees, you grow your business.
More Business Competition Insight
For more tips on how to gain a competitive advantage for your business, check out the improve morale at your company, check out the weekly Culture of Convenience podcast.
