A famous world class athelete once commented, “A common trait among those who perform at the highest level in any sport or business is that they take losing personally.”
The list is long
Competition has an unusual affect on people. It often:
- Causes us to want something more badly
- Inspires us to exert more energy in attaining it
- Helps us to maintain our focus on the goal
- Inspires us to put more effort in attaining it
- Can infuse our creativity
- Increases our determination
- Broadens our thinking and expands the possiblities
- Causes us to assess our strengths and weakenesses
A Personal Experience
When we first began our current operations in 2003, there was a competitor in the area who was also an established realtor. Their agents weren’t nearly equipped with the skill level or the professionalism as were ours. But perception is reality, and they hustled. Then they imitated an idea of a local business and marketed it as their own. It was gaining traction and I had had enough.
Voila
The competitive juices began to flow. Thus spawned the idea for Stage-2 Home Preparation, our in-house staging company. This was well before the rage in staging. Our listing inventory increased dramatically and our staged homes sold more quickly and for more money. We created “raving fans” and soon reclaimed the #1 position in the number of successful sales in our market place. It simply wouldn’t have happened without the inspiration of our competition.
Embrace It
Keep this in mind the next time you have an appointment to extoll the virtues of your marketing plan before a prospective seller or the next time you are about to embark on a campaign of personal promotion. Don’t fear the competition, embrace it. Out perform it. It is critical to the health of your business.
Can you remember the last time that you were wise enough to turn the competition into an advantage? Please let us know in the comment section below.
Expand your mind and receive your dose of “The Daily Tonic” everyday.* It’s always brief and thought provoking.
Simply go to the top of this page or the home page of thedailytonic.com, enter your email in the navigation bar to the right and click “subscribe.” Of course your email address will be kept private.
*The Daily Tonic is published every weekday, M-F.
