The Worst Four Letter Word in Business

May 17, 2012

I know lots of four letter words. I can’t remember when I learned them but I think I was late to the game, and more importantly, I know how to use them now. And boy oh boy can I string them together! In business, there are lots of four letter words too. But there is one in particular that every one of us knows and despises. It’s the one word that can make us explode in anger, or cower in the corner.

That word is (drum roll)…competition. Whether it’s the new gym across the street or the software company out west, everybody has competition. But how do you handle and respond to your competition?

(Somewhat tangential but we had a great discussion about proactively strengthening your position against your competition in yesterday’s webinar on Direct Mail with Adam Sacco of Members Today. Click here to view the replay or at least download the materials which included a great case study on using Direct Mail to stave off competition).

Anyways, recently, we had an unfortunate encounter with one of our competitors who did something, that later, by his own admission, was somewhat below the belt.

I won’t bore you with the details, this is a PG-rated blog after all but I learned a lot from this interaction. And I thought I would share all of it with you. Don’t say bad things about your competition. It really is that simple.

In fact, I want to take a minute to thank my competition. They made us make better software. They made us provide better service. They make us provide it all to you at a lower cost. They are the ones responsible for Betterville.

So the next time you find yourself eye to eye with your competition, the only four letter word that should come out of your mouth is “Thanks!” I know it’s not four letters but what’s a little math amongst friends/competitors!