Ugh. Competitors.
Sneaking in and gobbling up your opportunities before you.
Some competitors can be deterred just with maintaining good, healthy opportunities. Steady nurturing.
Others, however, can get in and ruin things no matter how strong the relationship.
We could try to poison (NOT LITERALLY) the competition, but that can create more trouble than it’s worth.
And if you’re not careful, do more harm than good by deterring the pollinators and other beneficial folks you need to help your deals come to fruition.
I could try exclusion with those little fruit bags… but yellow crooknecks aren’t exactly high-value. If this became an issue with my ghost peppers, however, it could be worth it.
In this case, I’m going to try some natural deterrents (diatomaceous earth and BT bacteria).
But no matter what I do, there will always be competition, and I’m always going to lose some.
In business, you can’t spray your competition in the face with poison.
But you can exclude the competition with differentiation.
You can build strong relationships that lead your prospects to resist the pests.
You can bring beneficial folks into your network that can help deter your competition even when you’re not around.
And you can also find ways to work with your competition to “grow the pie” and keep them out of your deals.
Whatever you do, when you start growing sweet opportunities, others are going to want to a part of it.
Your response doesn’t have to be drastic. And in the end, your goal isn’t to beat the competition – it’s to harvest what you’ve been growing.
But you do have to stay vigilant, and at least a step ahead.
#clientcultivation
