Become an expert on your competitors


Posted By: Thomas Shaw, 12:45am Thursday 15 January 2009

In business, having competitors goes with the territory. There’s almost always someone selling the same product or service you are selling, or at least trying to solve the same customer problem you solve.

It's not personal, it's just business!

We have known about our competitors Destination Talent's test site http://www.philliptusing.com/recruiter/ for more than 6 months, checking out the site occasionally to see how much they have copied us, or the data they have scraped from the RCSA member directory. What have I said previously about online security and protecting your test site http://www.recruitmentdirectory.com.au/Blog/secure-your-website-a34.html or http://www.recruitmentdirectory.com.au/Blog/reminder-to-all-do-not-put-your-test-website-online-a27.html because it will be found.

Oviously, if they can't protect the websites security now...when launched, clients should be worried.

Another interesting development was a programming request made on RentACoder http://www.rentacoder.com for a "Recruitment Agency Search Program" http://www.rentacoder.com/RentACoder/misc/BidRequests/ShowBidRequest.asp?lngBidRequestId=1064616 another person scraping the RCSA member database ey? It's not that hard; just ask me for the script.



Not only can competitors out-market you and steal your valuable prospects and customers; they can put you out of business if you’re not careful. Trying to fight back by out-marketing your competitors can not only get expensive, it can be frustrating.

But there is another solution.

Make the decision to keep increasing the amount of information stored about your competitors each time you review your business plans so that you build an extensive collection of facts and figures regarding their organisation. This way you can design effective strategies that take into account the true market place you are operating in.

Competitors' websites, if analyzed properly, can give you all sorts of information that you can use to increase the traffic and the popularity of your site.

Eliminating your competitors is the easiest way to increase your chances of business success. It isn’t that hard when you know what you’re doing. Become a expert in the industry you are servicing, build trust and loyalty and the clients will follow. Exploit weaknesses and act on their failure.

Here is a list of questions to ask yourself in your own recruitment business.