Thank you for ordering the Crush Your Competition mind map templates. You can download templates for each of the 5 techniques, in MindManager, MindGenius, NovaMind, iMindMap and XMind files formats.
1. Do a SWOT analysis for your company and each of your competitors
SWOT maps help you to visualize your company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Once you’ve identified these strong and weak areas, your goal is to brainstorm ways to to maximize and leverage your strengths, while at the same time minimizing your weaknesses. In addition to creating one for your organization, I recommend you also create them for each of your major competitors. Look for weak spots or under-served areas of opportunity where you can leverage an advantage.
Map templates
MindManager
MindGenius
NovaMind
iMindMap
XMind
2. Do a product and service analysis
Map out your products and all of the services you provide to your customers. Spend some time brainstorming about other products or services you could sell to them – either those that you produce or that you could gain access to via joint ventures. The goal is to provide a more complete solution to your customers’ needs. At the same time, use this opportunity to identify any products or services that aren’t providing enough customer value. Either strengthen them or eliminate them. You don’t need them being a drain on your resources.
Map templates
MindManager
MindGenius
NovaMind
iMindMap
XMind
3. Brainstorm around customer needs
Spend time brainstorming what you think your customers’ biggest needs are. Record them in a mind map. Then talk to several key customers and ask them these key questions. Record their answers in your map. Make them a different color than your own perceptions of their needs. That will help you to see just how close to or off the mark you were. Finally, create a new map to capture ideas for new or improved products or services to meet the key needs you have identified.
Map templates
MindManager
MindGenius
NovaMind
iMindMap
XMind
4. Who else has solved this customer problem?
Do some research on how other industries have solved the challenges your customers face. Capture any that are even remotely relevant or interesting in a mind map. Then think about ways in which you could adapt their approaches to solve your customers’ problems in an elegant way or otherwise prove greater value to them.
Map templates
MindManager
MindGenius
NovaMind
iMindMap
XMind
5. What’s your unique selling proposition?
Brainstorm your unique selling proposition, or USP – that singular combination of capabilities and strengths that makes your organization better than anyone else at meeting your customers’ needs. How can you do more, serve better and provide a better outcome for your customers? What makes you a better investment than any other potential supplier? Build your vision for your USP in a mind map.
Map templates
MindManager
MindGenius
NovaMind
iMindMap
XMind
Bonus report: Competitive analysis
In this report, I will explain how to create a competitor analysis map, and will outline the types of information it ought to contain. I’ll also share some tips on how you can take this concept of competitor analysis further, leveraging the unique strengths of mind mapping software to make this mountain data easier to manage and update.
Map templates
MindManager
MindGenius
NovaMind
iMindMap
XMind
Bonus report: 15 sources of potential competitive threats
This mind map covers competitive threats that you may not be anticipating. Use it to insert your own notes on specific competitors, their apparent strategies and how you plan to react.
Map templates
MindManager
MindGenius
NovaMind
iMindMap
XMind
Conclusion
Remember, beating your competitors is all about meeting the needs of your key customers better than anyone else – both those they have articulated as well as any unspoken ones that you can infer from what they have told you.
Run your own game – don’t imitate, because commoditization tends to lead to razor-thin or non-existent profit margins. Instead, innovate – not just in terms of products, but also services, business models, distribution, marketing and your supply chain. Good luck!
Questions?
Please contact Chuck Frey at chuck@innovationtools.com.