How to Handle Competitors Who Attack Your Business

In the business world, competition is a healthy thing.

Until it's not.

That sometimes does happen. This week we are going to talk about competitors who may cross a line. It may not even be a line. It could just be a gray area. But we're going to. Yeah. What, what, how did we, how do we handle this? We'll get into that next.

She's the CEO, he's the marketing and operations guy.

If it's broken, you need the business.

F. So, Josh, have you ever, ever had a competitor spread rumors about you or badmouth your business? How'd you initially react?

Violently would be what most people would think. It has happened. But. Yeah. What about you? I mean, you guys have a pretty broad scope. And you deal in hr.

Yeah.

You also deal in insurance. These are two industries that sometimes draw an angry eye.

Cutthroat, competitive and at the same time.

Correct, correct. I mean, production has that same cutthroat. But yeah, I mean, let's face it, every industry is.

I haven't set anybody's car on fire lately, so it should be okay.

Good.

Yeah. I mean.

So I mean, we're going to talk about this tough issue today because there's competitors out there. We've both faced them that deal with negative tactics. You and I, I mean, it's one of the things that I love. We both, we don't try and kill people with kindness.

No.

I'd rather just ignore them and let them die on their own, pretty much. But there's some nuance to it. To me, what's it, what's a time that, I mean, that you've had this happen where someone's come after you guys with the big knife, let's say.

Yeah, I would say it happens just because you do your job well or you have a good reputation. So I think the best is often you're talking about, especially with AUI, a third now fourth generation family business that turned 50. And so there's always that constant of you realize they're going out of business. Right. Like we are.

Well, it's, I mean, there's been a lot of.

Yeah, there's been a lot of industry changes. Like the world of work looks different. So maybe like two thirds of our employees are remote or in a different position or we've shifted some of the things that we're doing. We started another business and that business is growing and the other business is growing. Yeah, we're going out of business. No, oftentimes the people that say that are people that may or may not have worked here at a Time. And so they move on to other places. And instead of walking and doing the things from a competitive perspective that make sense, perform on product, perform on price, perform on your services and what you do, perform on value, it's, oh, we'll just. We'll just kick them, say they're going out of business. You realize they don't know what they're doing. Really. Okay.

I find that so interesting because we. I mean, we face some of it, too, because, I mean, we're getting people out there so they can. Their voices can be heard.

Absolutely.

And sometimes people like, no, that's wrong. Or. And it's. It's some of these claims that go unfounded and it's just someone screaming from the back of the room and that may not have any knowledge or whatever. We kind of mentioned the ignore thing.

Yeah.

There's some that come up to a point, though, where they need addressed. I mean, why I'm helping someone right now deal with, like, a little bit of a PR crisis where they. I mean, they hold an executive position, they are getting told, they're getting slandered, basically saying, hey, they do drugs, their life is falling apart. They aren't. Right, right, right. Of course. It's someone from Facebook that has no personal knowledge.

Facebook warrior.

Yes, right, right. We all love the Facebook warriors. It's been interesting because my approach with this has been to say, like, you don't ever comment on anything. Do not respond directly to them. Is that your modus operandi there?

That's my general. Especially when it comes to things that are in. In print, if you're in social media, we do not. We do not get into debates. We do not get into arguments every time you've got to deal with reputation management. It's different. When it's a phone call, you can have sometimes a more direct conversation. So we've had it happen in the past where customers called us and said, hey, this person called me. I know they used to work for you. And now they're telling me all these things, and I'm offended. Like, I'm so glad you're offended, because I'm offended too, because I know that's not who you are. I'm like, that's. You're right. It's not who we are. But for every one of those, there's still people that haven't picked up the phone and called us and told us. And sometimes we lose customers because of a lie. And what we have to just remind is to focus on what we do best and not to waste our Time worrying about the competitors that are throwing shade. Unless they cross a legal line, in which case you're violating of a non compete. You're kind of being, you're dealing with slander. There's times where you have to kind of send the letter or shoot the warning shot. Like just because we're purveyors of peace doesn't mean we don't know how to go to war. We do and we do it well. But we're not going to do that unless we absolutely have to too.

I love that in so many times when you look at like the position of like the US in so many ways, we don't necessarily have to go to war. No one typically fights the biggest guy in the bar. The biggest, toughest, meanest looking person. No one's, no one's going to go pick a fight with him typically. And if they are, they're probably going to learn a hard lesson. What I find interesting with it, as you said that address it and kind of like I've often encouraged people to address it in their own manner.

Yeah.

When you hear the hey, you're going out of business. Right. To me I would be like, now is the time to celebrate 50 years of being in business. And we are looking forward to the next 50 years. If I mean to me that is. I feel like the best middle fingers are subtle.

They are. They absolutely are. My dad used to always say, walk in silence, let success be your noise.

I love that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The, the, the, the best middle fingers are the ones that they don't see, are the ones that they hear.

Yes.

When it comes to this professionalism, when it comes to focusing on your own business's strengths, it's a tough line to walk. To address something without calling it out. I guess it would say, is that the right way to say that?

No. I would think so. I would also say it's not RSVPing to every argument you're invited to.

Oh, I like that. I like that. Sometimes just ignoring it and letting it fizzle.

We're gonna be who we are. We're gonna continue to be consistent. We're gonna continue to crush it in our lane quietly. And sometimes not so quietly because that's the other part is sometimes those people that are throwing stones, they don't know how to compete in other ways. The only way they can compete is to be petty. And you just don't sink to that level.

No, no. At least try not to.

Try not to. And remind yourself, at least I do occasionally just go, I am too Pretty for prison. So it's just, it's easier.

I don't, I can't say that, but.

Sure, I will not, I will not acclimate.

Well, no, I, I can say that for sure. As a, as a, as a bit of a germaphobe. I will not acclimate to that. No, would not. One thing that we sometimes hear is that when you get this outside shade is what we'll call it, that can cause problems internally.

Yes.

Obviously your employees may hear it. You're. How do you, I mean, guide people in addressing that from the, the HR standpoint? Because to me I just like, okay, we just say something nice and people are going to believe it doesn't always happen. So we need some more HR stuff.

Yeah.

Where does that come in?

So part of that is, you know, company culture can be your built in armor in dealing with competition. So having a strong, thick culture of an organization that we care about each other, we collaborate, we believe in, in our mission and our purpose. We live by the core values that we're in. Oftentimes, especially if you're dealing with someone who may have been employed in your organization and they're somewhere else, oftentimes the reason they've exited is because they couldn't live by the core values. Whether that was something that you accelerated as the business owner and said, you're out, or they decided they didn't want to be part of it because they didn't like how the culture felt, so it didn't feel good to them. So I think that strong teams don't rattle when haters show up. They tend to just galvanize themselves and continue to put their heads down and work hard. So if you create a culture where people want to stick around, they're also going to stick up for the organization too. So I think there is. I get frustrated and offended at times when I hear some of the chatter from the competition. My team members are times a thousand. Like, I have one that I probably just need to make. No, we're not gonna, we're not gonna do that. Just gonna pull you back. That whole, like, I know you won't survive in prison. Like, nope, come back, come back. We're not going to do that. And again, it's the reminding as the, as the CEO, as the leader. You've got to hold that culture of, you know what, let's, let's walk in silence and let success be our noise. You're modeling the behavior that you want to see. No, we're not going to go slash their tires I know you want to. You can talk about it, but don't do it.

It's funny. You say the walk in silence piece and I really do love that. The thing that I have always tried to focus on with my teams has been that honesty. Oh, absolutely. When they hear that we're going out of business, they have zero questions that. That's B.S.

Exactly.

There is no questions. There is no. I mean, they may come to you and be like, hey, I heard this. And you're going to be like, what? And as soon as you say what? Yeah, they're going to know. I mean, it's that honesty that to me, that makes it so. Once again, if they feel like they're being talked to honestly, they can go out and talk to your clients honestly and be like, where did you hear that from?

Exactly.

Because it's always tough when your employee hears it from a customer and says, I heard you guys are going out of business. And the employee goes like what?

Yeah, the panic response as opposed to what? There's a difference between what and what. So I completely agree. And I think you're exactly right in transparency and arming them with the information. I think that well informed employees can set the narrative regardless. And I think that's something that you can even create in your culture to begin with. You know, not every company wants to share their financials, but they can share like, are we a red light, Are we a green light, Are we a yellow light? Where are we in. In space? You can have those types of conversations so that even then when the, the team member hears it, they can take it and pivot. And at the same time, if you know that you've got the potential for an issue because sometimes we know somebody exits, that's going to be a challenge. Or you know, you've got competition that maybe they're having an issue and you know it. But we're not going to say that. It gives you the capacity to kind of educate your employees on, you know, these may be some things that you're going to hear at times. We've been in business for 50 years. We have a really great reputation. Occasionally someone's going to try to take that reputation and poke holes in it. So these are the ways that we will respond.

It's. It's interesting you say that too, because we see it sometimes. There's production companies that come and go and there are.

Same with insurance agents, I'm sure. NHR consultants, I'm sure.

Well, it's the. What I find interesting is that a lot of People think that there is a low barrier for entry because we're service industries.

Yep.

We do not need a giant building with billions of dollars of machines in it to do our thing.

Correct.

We need some intelligence. We need the. The right. Those types of. Right tools. We need to know the right things to do. But, yeah, we do occasionally see some of these bad actors sneak in and then they're like, oh, no, no. They don't know what they're doing. I've. I've seen their stuff or whatever. It's just. It's that frustrating, disheartening piece that is tough. How do you mentally. And we talked about the. Too pretty for prison. How do you mentally not go there instantly?

Did you hear that?

I was about to say, did you.

Hear the brief breathing?

All I'm thinking of right now is George Costanza's father, Serenity Now. Obviously, it did not work for him. What is your Serenity Now?

I think some of it is reminding ourselves that we've been here for a long time and we're going to be here. And we control our own narrative. So I think controlling where we are, controlling the mindset of, you know, oftentimes the individuals that are coming into this space and are picking are going to fizzle out.

Yes.

And so that I know, as much as I want to just throat punch them, it's not worth it.

You've mentioned that when we were talking about this as a topic, how not.

To throat punch your competition.

Correct.

Yeah.

You brought that up fairly quickly, fairly early on.

Can you tell it's something that we're dealing with maybe potentially, But I think part of it is just reminding yourself that this is a long game. This is like small business is a marathon. It is not a sprint. I mean, different types of organizations, 10,000 small businesses, some of these others will say, like, have your exit in mind. But ultimately, for a lot of us business owners, our exit is at some point in time, maybe passing it to another generation of people. And if that is the case, we can't let these types of petty arguments in the marketplace detract us from really the mission, which is providing quality service, finding other customers, making sure that we're continuing to grow and do the things that we do best. I don't need to worry about. It's not that I don't need to worry about what my competition's doing. I do need to pay attention, but I don't need to worry about what they're saying. If I'm really paying attention to my business and we're growing and we're doing the things that we need to do as an organization.

It's funny because I have a very. Operations. You. You use the. And this is why. This is why I like when we get to do stuff like this. Because you've got this vision for what's going to happen. I am very much the. Okay, they said this. What is the result of it? What can I do about it? What is the end result of it?

Yeah.

And to me, I just, I start branching that down very quickly. They said something. Could we lose customers? Yes. What can I do about it? Absolutely nothing, except doing my damnedest to make sure that we offer the best service and the. The value pricing and everything that we can. That is. That is instantly where my brain goes. And it. It to me, because what sucks is as business owners, especially when someone says something bad about our businesses, you would probably rather they said something bad about your kids than about your business.

Oh, yeah, I would say, because. Get them. It's usually the first reaction and then it's like, okay, step back.

Right. So, I mean, you could. This is your baby.

It is my baby. And my kids can defend themselves fairly easily. My business has a voice, but oftentimes that voice is mine. And so that's where I mean. Yeah, good luck. Yeah. You want to pick on Maddie or Caleb, go ahead. Like, they will come for you too. But it's a different type of. It's a different type of thing. So it's understanding that, you know, silence is really a power move. It can be. And oftentimes your best defense is being so good that they can't ignore you. And often when we're getting. When people are picking at our business, when we're hearing that chatter in the marketplace from our competition, remind yourself. And this is something that I have to do, too. And it's just. They're doing it because that's all they got. You're doing a good job in the marketplace. You're doing a good job with your organization. You're growing. There's something that you have that they don't have. And the only way that they can differentiate is to tear you down by saying you're going out of business. Mean, come on, pick something that's actually true.

So here's something else that I have found, too, is if we don't want to lose any clients.

No.

Never, ever. But. Well, there's some.

Occasionally there might be one that isn't a fit.

Correct. And to me, that is one thing that I say that. Okay, if someone is Going to be swayed by that type of opinion, Are they your client?

Anyways, that's a really great way to.

Frame sucks because you're like, hey, buy cash flow. Correct. You know, this is one of those things where we talked about an emergency fund in the last podcast. Because if you lose that client, you're like, oh yeah, you may have more time to go find someone that might be a better fit now. Because to me, if they didn't fit within your culture, we've got, we've got clients that don't. Yeah, every business has clients that don't fit within your culture. Every business, though, the best clients you have are the ones that like, hear your like core value is shared with them.

Yes.

We see it all the time. It like, for us, it's success is a shared thing that we see. So many of our clients that are like, we're all in this together. Yes, yes. All day long. The sums that are like, yeah, just get this stuff done. Whatever. You do your thing. We're kind of like, well, that's not exactly how this works. Those are the ones that may leave. And it can be, it sucks, it's painful, it does, it hurts, but it can be okay in the long run.

It can. And I think it's important to think too about the ideal fit clients that you have are the ones that help build your reputation. And your reputation is really what maintains you through the storms that you may deal with with competition and the chatter in the marketplace. So it's really thinking about the long game, having the right people, the right customers. It's not just so it's culture within your organization, it's having the right client fit. And that really creates your reputation to kind of give you longevity.

What's interesting about that is that a good client will hear the you're going out of business and be like, no.

Yeah. They call you and they're like, guess what I heard.

Right, Right. Do you want to have a good laugh? Guess what I just heard about your business.

Yes.

That's. No, it. That all totally makes sense. I mean, is there anything that. To me, I mean, we want to make sure we focus on our own strengths and customer service. Take care of your people, monitoring online reviews and social media for negative comments.

Yeah.

You ever get any of those?

Oh, occasionally. It'll happen. I mean. And you want to know the worst Google review we got was a non right fit client. Really?

Same.

Yeah. Don't like this. And I'm like, that's because you didn't listen. But you don't say that, you just go, I'm sorry you're unhappy. But I will say that setting up Google alerts for your company, I think is important. Like those things where you know, like, what's coming. It's better if you know what's coming before your mom calls you and says, what's going on. I saw this on the Internet. You don't ever want that to happen. And I'm not saying that's happened to our organization. I'm just saying it may have happened to other people's organizations that we've worked with.

Are you sure?

I'm sure. I'm 100% sure. That has not happened. I mean, and you got to remember, you've got to control your narrative, because if you don't, Karen from Facebook probably will. So you've got to be careful. Like reputation management. To me, it's one thing when you're dealing with your competition, talking about you. That's going to happen. And congratulations as a business owner, when it does.

Yes.

That is the notice that you have arrived.

You matter enough for someone else to talk bad about you.

Yes. Yep. If you're. If you're ticking them off and you're causing them to lose sleep or say mean things about you, you won.

Nice job. Well done. Yeah. Something else that kind of. That kind of goes with that. The one thing that I'm seeing with this, there's not much you can do after the competition has said things. This is another one of those things that is preventative maintenance. It's like changing the oil in your car. If you maintain your reputation and do the things right up front, you have no problems when someone on the back end starts saying nasty things about you.

Absolutely.

If your shop is in a bit of disrepair or disorder, then when someone comes in and says something, they're may not be always unfounded. So making sure that you. This is one of those things where this is not. There's no disaster control in business.

No.

It's kind of always a disaster.

Varying degree of dumpster fire, is that what you're saying?

Correct. Correct. Correct. To me, I always feel like you. You are. As a business owner, it is a case of looking for the thing ahead, making sure that you're staying ahead while going ahead and taking the time to put out the dumpster fires behind you. What I guess is if you are planning in advance, you're making sure that no one's dumping gasoline in the dumpsters before they get lit on fire.

Yes.

They aren't filled with paper products. They're Filled maybe with some metal or some. They're okay. Small fire, not a big deal. If you have allowed someone to pump 400 gallons worth of gasoline in the dumpster and then lights it on fire, well, then that's another story. So, dumpster maintenance.

Dumpster maintenance. How about you be proactive in how you're doing things. Maintain your reputation, show up for things. Do what you say you're going to do.

This is the nice thing because I call it dumpster maintenance. You say be proactive?

Yes.

This tells you about our dispositions and outlooks. I am very much the glass half empty guy. That's why I'm calling, referring this to dumpster maintenance. Yeah, yeah, that's. I think we have now summed up our different views on life and everything like that. It kind of one of the last things. What. What's an early warning sign that you may think where you start to get. Get an inkling that a competitor may be starting to do some shady stuff?

Well, there's a few. I mean, there's always the client calling. There's maybe client exit forwarding, something kind of like, hey, this is like, sometimes you get those types of correspondence. The other is, you know, if you're marketing, I mean, I know that I do this. I look at my competitors and how are they marketing? What are they doing? And it's always fascinating when a competitor takes an approach that is not uniquely them, but uniquely, usually. So when I start seeing things that look a little bit more like AUI and clarity HR in our competitors, social media and their marketing, I'm like, oh, this is going to be interesting. And it's flattery, but at the same time, you're kind of seeing there might be some. Some interesting gauges and competition. Same thing. If they start showing up in the same places that you are, you just kind of pay attention.

Sure, sure.

So, yeah, what about you? I want to talk about pr because you've dealt with marketing and pr.

Yeah, a lot.

So how can businesses use the positive of marketing and PR to counteract the effects of negative competition?

What I find so funny about it is there's been so many times when we have gotten like negative feedback or we've heard negative things. And I always sit there and I look back and I'm like, oh, man, thanks for the idea. I like that they say, hey, they're doing, doing this wrong. And I'm like, oh, we should talk about how right we do this. That's a brilliant idea. Someone. Someone posts that, hey, like you said, okay, you're Going out of business. Hey, everyone. We just. We just had a record month. I want to thank all of our clients because of this. We're going to do this. When you do things like that, I mean, look at it as like, you're. These people are going to give you an idea.

Yeah.

What's something that I can look at? And once again, you cannot directly address them. No, you do not. But you can be like, oh, hey, let's talk about this. And let's talk about this in a subtle way. We don't want to give them credit for giving us the idea, but there's an idea in there. To me, from the PR and marketing side of it, there's ideas out there everywhere. It's just a case of being open to, like, oh, that's an idea. Not, hey, they just called me a jerk. If they did, I may post a Steve Martin meme or something of that nature. Just. Just to really go with that. I may as well lean into it. I did that a few weeks ago when I had a voiceover that was played someplace and I used a Steve Martin meme from when he was in the jerk and his name got in the phone book and he's like, these are the things that make people. So. Yeah, that, that definitely use that to. Is there anything that you think we missed? Because I think we've got a pretty good cover on this.

Yeah. I would say just check yourself before you lose your temper or get frustrated with it.

Check yourself before you wreck yourself or anyone else, for that matter. End up in prison.

Yes. Because that's not going to be good for your small business.

No, no. It's tough to run your small business from prison. That is. That is. Yeah. I would think that there's a lot of. There's a lot of entrepreneurs in prison.

There are, but I don't want to be one.

Correct. Correct. Same here. That all being said, we both really thank you. Next week, we are. We're not even going to delay this at all for the next episode. We are talking about. What are we talking about? Is it procrastination?

Yeah, I think so.

We don't want.

We don't. We don't have to talk about it. We can talk about something else if you'd rather not.

You just want to talk about it later, huh? Okay. That all being said, make sure you visit thebusinessfix.com, visit all the socials, make sure that you have us followed. We love hearing from you. Give us all the comments you can. We'd love for your suggestions for the next topic. As always, take care of yourself. And if you can, take care of someone else. We'll see you soon.

Absolutely.

It.