A courier driver or a delivery service company that is new in the industry may tend to get paranoid of the competition. However, rethinking what competition can actually do for your business and being proactive about it can actually help you achieve your business goals.
Extra Work
For a courier driver, the benefits of keeping competitors close may not be obvious at first glance. We’ve been led to believe that the best way to defeat the competition is by cutthroat means, but we live and thrive in a deeply interconnected world, and treating your business rivals as the enemy can only hurt you in the long run. In truth, you need to look deeper under the surface of things to see the wisdom of befriending or at least establishing a good business relationship with your closest competitors.
To illustrate, there may be times when one of your competitors cannot accept work offered to them – for instance when a customer needs a certain service that your competitor can’t fulfil. Normally, they would just reject the customer and let market forces determine their next choice; however, if you have a relationship with that competitor they may send you the business. That means extra jobs for you, with the competitor acting as your sales agent!
Extra Earnings
On the other hand, the same may be true from the other side of the kind of scenario mentioned above. As a courier driver, if there are jobs you cannot fulfil and you know your competitor can do it, you can give them the job provided you get a share of the profit. One caveat, however: if you’re sending one of your competitors jobs and you’re asking for a slice of their earnings, be realistic. It is not reasonable to ask for a share of the profits that is larger than the share person doing the actual job will get. For good measure, and if you’re doing this on a regular basis (especially for regular clients), it is best to have a standing contract that clearly outlines the terms and conditions any time you send work to a competitor.
Marketing Strategies
Any courier driver who spends long hours on the road will most probably have a firm grip on how the competition fares – especially in terms of what they do to secure growth. By closely observing what your identified competitors do to in order get new customers, you will be able to formulate or improve your own marketing strategies – perhaps with distinct improvements that overcome the weaknesses of competing campaigns. The bottom line in the delivery business is that it is not necessary to reinvent the wheel; simply take a discerning look at how others do it, then either match it with an equally brilliant move or an even better one!