Grab More Market Share: How to Wrangle Business Away from Lazy Competitors

How to Wrangle Business Away from Lazy Competitors

A sluggish economy is no excuse for lagging sales. While others sit gobsmacked by abrupt changes in the market, you have an opportunity to grow. And how do you do that? By "stealing" market share from weak and lazy competitors.

GRAB MORE MARKET SHARE: How to Wrangle Business Away from Lazy Competitors (Wiley; September 13, 2011, $22.95, Hardcover) shakes any business out of a floundering stupor and teaches you how to remain reactive to the market's evolving needs. Take the example of McDonald's: Many years before the recession hit, McDonald's tested its McCafé concept—offering specialty coffee and smoothies—but the official launch took place in early 2009. Why? Because that's when Starbucks was most vulnerable. Consumers flocked to McDonald's for cheaper specialty drinks, and in early 2010, McDonald's raked in $420m. Meanwhile, in 2009, Starbucks closed over 270 locations.

GRAB MORE MARKET SHARE uses rock-solid case studies that teach leaders to leverage the recovery and take 10 to 15 percent more market share. Using real-world examples from household name companies, this book arms you with actionable advice to help you:

• Identify trends hiding in plain sight by listening to the chatter on TV, online, and at dinner parties for signals that the public's habits are changing
• Avoid becoming profit-blinded by your old business model so that you can spot the next big thing
• Track the evolution of customer needs, and recognize that urgency, not service, is what the customer wants
• Know when and how to engage the crowd to help you solve a problem
• Engage people with the "false start," listen to learn, and become a trusted advisor

When you leverage the public consciousness, people can't help but swing their dollars towards your organization. The public knows what it wants. It's just waiting for you to deliver it in the way they want to buy. GRAB MORE MARKET SHARE will teach you how NOT TO SETTLE for 1 to 2 percent average growth. With these nimble tactics, tools, and metrics, you can exponentially accelerate beyond "average."

In troubled times, businesses need to shake off their uncertainty and look around. Previously intimidating competitors are often hamstrung by inflexible business models and unable to accommodate shifts in the market. As consumer habits change to reflect new economic realities and cultural trends, huge chunks of the market go up for grabs. And that's when smart companies who are paying attention can step up and "steal" their share.

If you want to grow in a slowly recovering—or even stagnant—economy, or a declining market, your best and only plan is to remain reactive to the market's needs and wrangle away somebody else's market share. GRAB MORE MARKET SHARE teaches professionals how not to settle for 1 percent growth, how to leverage shifting public consciousness, to predict the next changes in buying habits, and execute strategic plans that snag 10 to 15 percent market share from competitors. Spot those opportunities, and grab your share.