12/30/08

No Competition. Really.

The definition of competition from Webster's New World Dictionary is "1. the act of competing; rivalry, 2. a contest, or match, 3. official participation in organized sport, 4. opposition, or effective opposition, in a contest or match, 5. Rivalry in business, as for customers or markets, 6. the person or persons against whom one competes, and 7. Ecology the struggle among individual organisms for food, water, space, etc. when the available supply is limited."

There is no competition. It is you doing what you do and you can do all you can do or you can do less than all you can do. It is what it is. It is not a race and it is not up to someone else.

As a dealer, you don't compete with the dealer down the street, or a nearby town. Your focus area is your focus and you do what you can do with what you have to work with. Fearing others coming in and taking away what is yours is ludicrous. The only way that happens is if you are not doing all you can do with what you have to work with. This doesn't cause competition to increase, it causes your potential customers to go elsewhere because of you. There is plenty. When I was with a dealer, I could care less what the dealer in the next town was doing. I just paid attention to what I was doing.

I worked for a body company for 10 years and there were a number of other companies building similar products and calling on the same clients, but I never really saw them as competing with me or I with them. I was just doing what I could do to serve the clients who wanted to do business with me and I served them to the best of my ability and skill. Sometimes we might have a new product, but that wouldn't last long, so you just have to concentrate on being the best you can be in product and service.

I used to hear dealers complain about the dealer in the other town that was just giving the products away and they just couldn't compete with them. Baloney! They aren't giving them away and never have. They are just serving the customer and the customer chose them. You get all the chances you want.

I've heard the same with body companies. If you've got a good product and you have good service and your pricing is fair, you've got plenty. I will tell you that from my experience, the service is the most important of those three. I was hardly ever the lowest price, but I got plenty.

You got you and you. There you go. No competition.

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