Avoid doing what your competitors do. Be aware of what they are doing, but you do not necessarily have to follow their way.

Avoid doing what your competitors do. Be aware of what they are doing, but you do not necessarily have to follow their way.

Develop your own strategies that will give your product more advantages over theirs.

If your competitor sells the same product but cheaper, you do not necessarily have to lower your price to compete. Do what suits you. Consider your costs. Lowering your price to match a competitor's might put you out of business if your costs are higher.

Try something else to boost profits.

Avoid selling to a wide target market. Identify your niche and develop your marketing strategy to entice those customers. Targeting a broad market means you won't be able to identify customers' specific needs.

Avoid confining yourself to too narrow a market. Targeting female pilots younger than 35 who fly only from Johannesburg to Cape Town would be difficult to sustain in the long run. If you have the potential to sell to a bigger market, do not limit yourself.

Don't ignore existing clients to get new ones. You are in business because of your existing clients, so nurture those relationships.

Current and previous customers are the most important ones you will ever have because they already know about your product or service. You never know if potential clients will like your product.

Follow up on business leads.

One online marketing guru says the least expensive part of business is making a sale and the most expensive is generating leads or finding people who might be interested in your product.

Once you have someone who shows an interest in your product, follow up and try to convert the prospect into a buyer. Such a person is more likely to buy than someone who has not shown any interest.