Stephen Pierce recently gave the example of marketing tic-tac-toe (DT Alpha).  In it he points out that when playing the tic-tac-toe game you win by looking for the unoccupied or empty squares.  That’s simple enough: they are the only ones where you can put your X or O.

He applies this principle to the business of expanding your business or market share.  Look for the vacancies your competitors have left.  Perhaps they didn’t recognize the opportunities; perhaps they were simply interested in pursuing other directions and left the voids; perhaps they didn’t want to “get their hands dirty,” or perhaps they thought that opportunity was beneath them or their product/service.

Of course, the logic is compelling.  Why should you butt heads with your competition when you can make an end-run around them.  Butting heads produces bad headaches, but end-runs often produce great gains in yardage and sometimes spectacular scores. 

Looking for the holes left by the competition is usually not natural.  We really want to “do what they’re doing” rather than blazing new ground.  Certainly I would not suggest we simply go into completely uncharted territory.  What looking for the holes really means is looking for the areas on the playing field that, while in the mainstream, have simply been ignored.

 Again, when you find such opportunities, act on them quickly!  Remember that intelligent competitors will look around from time to time for new opportunities and sooner or later will find the hole you have noted.  They may take quick action while you continue to consider the opportunity.

Delay is deadly!  Evaluate any opportunity effectively but quickly.  If you decide to exploit that opportunity, do so quickly to pre-empt the competition.  When the competition finds that hole he or she will see you have already taken it over and will likely move on to something else.  Quickly seizing the opportunity not only gives you the competitive advantage, it discourages your competition from trying the same area.

To your business success!

Paul Elliott
Marketing With Unbelievable Guarantees!™
http://www.MarketingSuccessBlueprint.com/blog

© 2008, Paul Elliott, All rights reserved world wide.