Why is it that so many people claim they “are not really all the competitive?”
I certainly am competitive. In fact, I think it is A Good Thing. However, my husband no longer will play monopoly with me… or as he says “Killer Monopoly.”
Competition is a subject that has always fascinated me. And so, when I ran across Psyched Out in The Economist – I was intrigued. It was tailor-made for me.
What’s it All About?
It’s about a study done by two behavioral researchers seeking to learn if the number of participants in a competition had an effect on the behavior of the competitors.
The Net/Net? They found that the level of individual competitive effort declined as the number of competitors involved increased. Very interesting.
If there were many competitors (or a perception of many competitors), participants in a competitive situation had a tendency to assess their odds as less favorable and scale back their efforts. In other words, they gave up hope for a strong win.
By: gfrphoto
The Takeaway? When assessing your business competition — online or offline — it might be good to evaluate the number of participants in your competitive field. Fewer competitors? You may need a different approach than you would with numerous competitors.
For Online Business Competition, consider these actions in tight competitive markets:
- Develop more sophisticated competitive intelligence observation skills
- Use bleeding edge competitive intelligence-gathering technology & tools
- Assume fast response to your moves — contingency plans anyone?
- Assess each competitive move and “checkmate” key moves — fast
- Be wary of price-down efforts that can permanently kill your profits
- Dealing with irrational competitors? Don’t go over the bridge with them!
Perhaps it goes without saying — yet if you find yourself in a larger competitive field — take advantage of this mental shift and move aggressively to build a competitive advantage for your business while the rest of your competitors hang back.
