The Half-Truth of First-Mover Advantage

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2. Be customer-centric

Clearly understand exactly what your customers want and what they will pay for. Focus your efforts on excelling in those areas of demand. Customer-centric marketing requires placing the customer at the center of your marketing strategy in an effort to create and extract customer value.

3. Price based on value

Value-based pricing is based on understanding the overall value of an offering to any one buyer. Establish a solid pricing process that will enable you to differentiate your pricing across distinct market segments. Understand how you create value for your customers and what that value is worth.

Rather than lowering the price on your product, which may be better than the competitor's but more than what the customer needs, you may need to develop a specific product that will compete head-on with the competitor's product that you can provide at a lower price point. It will be important to do so in a way that won't cannibalize the rest of your product portfolio.

4. Create a low-price subsidiary

Consider creating a low-price subsidiary or finding a partner that has a low-price offering. This strategy will be successful only if you will become more competitive as a result of having set up the low-cost subsidiary. And for this approach to work well, some basic principles must be followed.

5. Sell a solution, not a product

When several low-cost players enter a market, the result could be the commoditizing of the products in question. Be prepared for that possibility by thinking in terms of solutions rather products.

Integrate products and services into a single offer. Services are much harder to evaluate on an apples-to-apples basis. In addition, services provide a vehicle for developing a deeper understanding of your customer's business. It is much harder for low-cost players to offer solutions. If you don't have the ability to provide the services, find a partner.

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Five Killer Strategies for trouncing the competition

Hardball player’s play to win and they focus relentlessly on their competitive advantage. There are five killer strategies talked about to shift their competitive position, consolidate gains and prepare for the next attack.

- Devastate Rival’s profit sanctuaries: Identify profit sanctuaries. Protect your profit sanctuaries while striking at rivals

- Plagiarize with Pride: Plagiarize other’s good ideas and don’t limit thievery to direct competitors.

- Deceive Competitors: Use fakes to throw rivals off balance and prevent the rivals from meeting your attack.

- Unleash massive and overwhelming force : Attack with full force – focused, direct and swift blow

- Raise competitor’s costs: Raise competitor’s cost.