Business adviser and founder member of NDBA Kevin Woodward supports collaboration

Most businesses see competition everywhere – on every street corner there appears to be a competitor and, of course, we don’t want to give our trade secrets away, so we never talk to them, so we never know whether they really are a competitor or not.

Why exclude competitors?

With most business networking groups there is a restriction on the number of businesses that are in the same trade category, and normally that number is restricted to one. This is another way to ensure that the culture of competition is maintained: we don’t want to network with businesses from the same trade as they are unlikely to want to buy from us. But, hang on a minute, isn’t networking all about building relationships and getting to know people? Is it really all about wanting to get people to buy from us?

Relationships count for more

We all know that people buy from people. It’s not always the product alone that makes people buy that product, it is often the person selling it who makes the difference to the buyer. And if you can build up a good relationship that buyer will come back to you time after time.

So, once we have built up that relationship with buyers or potential buyers, why are we afraid of the competition coming in and talking to the same potential buyers?  If you look at it from a business point of view, any business should go out and get more than one quote, so you will never be able to ensure that the potential client will use you.

Regardless of the situation, the potential client may well go to other networking groups, they may not like the fact that you support a particular football team, they may actually not like you, so you may not get the business anyway. So be brave, let the competition in. It could actually help you.

Working with the competition

Take a very simple example: you network with someone from the same trade as you. They are a competitor, but you start talking and discover that they buy their supplies from someone different to you, and those goods are better quality than your suppliers, but he gets them cheaper.

Wow, a lightbulb moment! 

You can change suppliers and save yourself, and/or your clients, money.

Or what if you are working on a client project and don’t have the required expertise and have to subcontract out part of the job to someone else? If you don’t talk to your competitor, you won’t find suppliers with the skills you need that you don’t have yourself. After further discussion, you find he’s got a small job that he can’t do, but you can – oh, happy days, you’re doing business with each other. But hang on a minute – he’s a competitor!

Don’t fear the competition

So, don’t be afraid to talk to the competition. He or she is never going to be exactly the same as you, and so there may well be areas of collaboration that can benefit you both, but you’ll never know, unless you talk to them.

Getting North Devon businesses working together

This is a big issue in North Devon, because it’s not only business people themselves who see competition on every corner, it’s also the towns. Bideford sees Ilfracombe as competition, Torrington sees South Molton as competition, everyone else sees Barnstaple as competition. But actually we are all in North Devon and we should be celebrating that we are in North Devon. If Ilfracombe can encourage people to come to North Devon and they pop over to Holsworthy for a day out, isn’t that good for everyone? We need to talk together, we need to encourage one another, we need to help one another, because as with the above traders we might surprise ourselves and find that we can actually do business with one another. And that can only improve North Devon.

Kevin Woodward

t: 01237 451848
e: kevin@kvassociates.co.uk
w: kvassociates.co.uk
twitter: @llamakevin