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COMPETITIVE EXIT STRATEGIES
BY JEFF AND MARC SLUTSKY
When you have a competitor that decides to shut his doors, it just may be opportunity knocking at yours. Consider the private investigator in Akron, who was able to take advantage when one of his major competitors went out of business. That competitor had a half-page yellow page ad. He found out that the competitor used an answering service and the service owned the phone number. So he took over their nominal monthly service fee. As a result, he doubled his sales for less than $50 a month.
A major pizza franchise had a competitor literally right next door that went out of business. The franchise owner was able to buy the competitors unused number from the local phone company by simply adding an additional line in his phone system.
Sewing Up His Competition
Bob Kramer of Kramer's Sew & Vac in Cincinnati achieved a similar goal but with a different approach. When one of his competitors went out of business his phone service was terminated. If you were to call that number, you would be informed that the number was no longer in service. He paid the guy $100 to contact the phone company and tell them to have their computer announce a number change instead of a phone disconnect. The new number that was given out was Bob's!
This is one of those ideas that may not work every time but certainly worth a shot. The worst that can happen is that they won't let you do it. But if it works it can be a nice jump in your inbound calls.
A Super Idea
Some Super 8 Motel franchisees had an interesting problem that was brought to our attention when we did a workshop at their annual convention. Apparently customers would confuse them with Motel 6 and often would call directory assistance asking for "Motel 8." After about ten minutes of brainstorming with the group, the Street Fighter solution was to place an additional listing in the phone book under "Motel 8" at a minimal monthly charge. If your customers are going to ask for you by a certain name, you should make it easy for them to find you.
Let Your Fingers Walk the Talk
No matter how proud you are of your yellow page ad, it's not a good idea to advertise, "look for our ad in the yellow pages" in your other advertising. It's the only advertising medium that puts your ad next to all of your competition. That makes it way too easy for your customers to use the phone and price shop you to death. Make your yellow page advertising work on its own.
Street Fighter Action Plan
1. Keep your eyes open for competitors that are announcing that they're going out of business.
2. First, approach that competitor, if it's a local independent business, and try to negotiate to pay them to request a number change (to your number) with the phone company.
3. If they agree, you might also try to buy a data base of their customers as well.
4. Also, if they agree, ask to offer to buy for them their "out of business" banner if you can put "go to (your business)" also on the banner.
5. If they don't cooperate, contact the phone company and try to buy that number and add a new line to your phone system.
6. Look for other variations of your company name to create additional listings that would position you near your competition in the white pages as well as offered by directory assistance.
| Street Fighter Marketing, Inc. |
467 Waterbury Court, Gahanna OH 43230
Phone: 614/337-7474 Fax: 614/337-2233
Questions? 1-800-SLUTSKY (758-8759) |
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