A Bigger Slice of Pie

Get a Bigger Slice

So many businesses are trying so hard to be all things to all people these days. Do we just need to decide who we’re trying to serve? What would happen if we could confidently, and happily focus on one market segment? Could we be happy there if we did? Would our customers be happy if we did?

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Responding Positively when Big Boxes Arrive

Don’t worry about them, but definitely don’t ignore them either. When the big boxes come to your backyard it”s a battlefield. Treat it as such.
A new Dartmouth study confirms what we knew about Walmart, and as Inc. Magazine reports, what can be done to counter their effect: Walmart does kill: Click the cover for the story.

Recently I was traveling through an area north of Asheville, NC where a new Lowe’s and Walmart were preparing to open across the highway from each other. I stopped in a nearby independent garden center and just mentioned to the owner that I had noticed the new competition preparing to open. He curtly remarked that they wouldn’t be his competition and that they would help his business. Believe me I wish this would be true, however I don’t believe it is. It is not healthy to take competition for granted. Instead we should have a healthy fear (respect) for competition. In fact, there are specific counter-competitive measures that should be taken against new, or long-existing competitors. Most of the measures should be about fortifying your own position in the marketplace and ‘bulletproofing’ your customer base, which is the specific intent of our Client Advantage program.

So be truthful. Has the movement of competition to your immediate trading area had an impact on your transaction count? How have you responded with specific intent to counter the effect of big boxes,? Do you think you might have had better results if you had been more proactive?