Cold days and rainy days tend to slow business to a halt for all companies that depend on the outdoor climate to cooperate.
For most businesses, it may limit the amount of people coming in but this does not mean that you cannot use your staff to help you get a better understanding of your business.
Competitive Analysis charts and graphs can give you a solid idea of what is happening in your market with other businesses that are competing for the same customer. By finding a few key metrics ( I recommend ten) you can start to monitor changes in your market that will require adjustment of resources. Having this knowledge and reacting quickly will keep you ahead of your competitors and in the spotlight for your customer.
So, let’s dive into the details.
A competitive analysis is, by definition, looking into your competitor strategies and determining their strengths and weaknesses relative to your own business. This is a critical element to add this to your marketing plan and update often.
To start: Open an Excel file and list all of your competitors in the first row and the Key Metrics across the top.
By using Excel you can look at the overall ranking or list the courses based on the metric that you are looking at. In the chart above, you can see that the price for golf is listed in the first column and you would think that it would be a direct reflection on their overall total score.
BUT IT ISN’T! Courses C and D are ranked higher.
I usually pull the price category out and draw a graph based on the remaining total score to give a true visual of who is under charging for their services and who is overcharging based on the market.
With the orange line being the expectations based on pricing (Golf Course A is highest price- Course J is lowest), you can clearly see some ‘dips’ in the value by some of the course and a couple courses that are above the value line.
If you can take the time to make the assessments at least quarterly, it can definitely keep your eye on what is important in the eye of the customer.
If you need some help, Rockhold and Associates would love to spend some time with you to build a worksheet, create competitor analysis, or handle the quarterly assessment.
