I am going to start a new series called “Business Power-Ups.” The term “power-up” comes from video games – a power-up would give your player instant benefits or add extra abilities. I grew up playing Atari 2600, Colecovision, Nintendo, and then Playstation. How many hours did I spend playing Super Mario Bros? It was alot. But hey, I have a ninja’s hand-eye coordination now!
Business Power-Ups are going to give you extra business powers and abilities! They’re like magic mushrooms for business. (The non-hallucinogenic kind.)
Business Power-Up #1 – order from your competitors. If you sell a product, or even possibly a service, place a small order from your main competitors. It’s amazing what you can learn. Back when I new nothing about the tee business, before Rizzo Tees opened, I ordered tees from Busted Tees, SnorgTees, Sackwear and Threadless. I learned:
1.) Who they used to print their postage (Snorg used Endicia, whom I am using now.)
2.) What kinds of bags they used – size, material. I then found a super-cheap supplier on eBay – ValueMailers. I can highly recommend them. No affiliate link here – just trying to help.
3.) What kinds of schwag they put in their packages. I put a sample of Bacon Salt in each of my orders, which clearly trumps all of them!
4.) How quickly they shipped their orders
5.) Their approximate order volume (email me if you want to know how I figured that out)
6.) What sort of packing slip they put in the bag
And I learned all this for the price of a few t-shirts. Placing orders with your competitors can yield a great deal of business intelligence.
Thnx for the heads up. We often do this if we are secret shopping brick and mortar stores and it throws them off every time. I had not considered it for online purchases. I am in the furniture and mattress biz. Very heavy, bulky, and costly items to ship and purchase. I am curious if you would do the same thing? Gr8 post.
I'm not sure I'd order too many mattresses and pieces of furniture online! Perhaps you could gather some intelligence by shopping in stores.
I take that back. If you feel, based on your knowledge of your industry, that you could learn something by placing online orders for mattresses from competitors….. One idea would be to place those orders and then donate the received goods to charity. There are many charities that need mattresses and furniture.
Chris,
That is a really good idea. This is something we already do if a piece comes in damaged or wasn't the piece they ordered. It's far to costly to ship back LTL. Come up with any other ideas please feel free to share. Thanks for responding you have my gears a grinding.
Great post…thats why Rizzo Tees are top of the game…
This is such good advice, Chris. It's important to know what customers experience with a competitor product/service. Sometimes, this knowledge can be used simply to explain to your customers why you're different to help their buying process!