Small and medium-sized businesses represent the majority of Spain's productive fabric. Every day, thousands of people wake up with an idea in their heads that, if properly matured and developed, could become a good business model, a prosperous company. However, it does not always work out.
It is important to start from the fact that a business will be more successful if it properly exploits knowledge, that is, if the person running it is well trained and capable of using it. From there, and before it gets going, a complete market study must be carried out . This consists of an exhaustive collection of data for later analysis, and to be able to define important issues such as the target audience for the product or service.
An extremely important part of market research is observing the competition, which must also be investigated and analysed. Knowing what they do, distinguishing between what they are good at and what they are not, can help to find business opportunities and even identify where the market is moving. It is also a good idea to do this to be alert to their reaction: what could they do to avoid losing customers? Will they lower their prices? These are questions that need to be asked.
The effectiveness of company directories
Starting from the importance of observing the competition, we highlight the argentina phone number usefulness of a good directory of Spanish companies. Companies such as eInforma have addresses of companies in Spain, sorted by autonomous communities and provinces. In fact, it not only allows you to consult the addresses of Spanish companies, but also even more relevant data such as financial, commercial and risk information on any of them.
With eInforma you can access information such as the position of a company in its sector of activity or the solvency level of its competitors, suppliers or even clients. Its services also include online payment claims, personal reports, marketing lists (budgets, segmentations and samples, segment evaluation, etc.) or access to the RAI (Registry of Unpaid Shares).
Among these services, the company valuation reports stand out. They are prepared by professionals with more than 15 years of experience, and they allow the situation of the company to be compared with the sector.
Their business reports are, therefore, extensive documents that reflect the characteristics and circumstances of a company in all its areas, although mainly in the financial area. It is useful not only to analyse the competition in a given sector, but also to select solid suppliers and to better understand the clients.
Other observation methods
This observation work does not end with the start-up of the business, but must occur throughout its development. However, one must not fall into an obsessive attitude, because this will contribute to always following what others do. Observation, yes; own ideas, too.
There are other well-known techniques for observing the competition, which help with the business plan itself but also, for example, when launching a marketing campaign.
-The on-site visit. It is clear that to get to know the competition you have to visit them, even if it is something that, at first, may cause embarrassment. The visit must be well prepared since you have to remain attentive to everything, even bringing a list of issues so that it is extremely productive.
The basics are to measure the quality of your product, check the rates, know how they handle customer service and after-sales service , know what image the point of sale presents (including location, decoration, hours...), what their distribution strategy is or even what volume of customers they have in different time slots.
-Web crawling. This seems like the easiest thing to do. If you look carefully and are patient, you will surely find a lot of information on their website and social networks. It is a free and anonymous way to find out about your competition.
Promotions, customer service, frequency of interaction, availability or online marketing campaigns are some of the things that this method can show.
-Specialized media. In specialized media you can find reports or company profiles that can also be very useful. Also pay attention to what those who have the most influence in the sector, the so-called influencers, have to say about a particular company.