Okay, I’m paranoid. I admit it.
I assume my competition is out to take my business, and I have built systems to prevent that from happening.
Today, I’m going to tell you one of my secrets for keeping an eye on the competition so I know immediately what they’re up to and can react instantly.
I want to know what they do and when they do it. Mostly, they telegraph their changes via their website, so that’s where I look.
I want to know if they:
- hire a new associate;
- change the name of their firm;
- lose an associate;
- offer a new service;
- change their pricing;
- open a new office;
- post a new article, blog post, or video;
- launch a new service in a new county or city; or
- develop a new offering (like unbundled services, mediation, etc.).
Therefore, I watch. I lurk. I keep an eye on their website, and I know immediately when they’re taking action.
An Easy Way to Keep Tabs on the Competition
How do I watch my competitors without manually scanning their websites every day?
I use ChangeDetection.com. It’s a free service that reveals any change to a page. I can keep an eye on the homepage, blog, employee list, pricing page, etc. I get an alert as soon as a page changes. I know instantly that something is up.
You can use ChangeDetection.com for more than simply feeding your paranoia. You can use it to monitor others who are doing cool stuff so you can steal their best ideas as they roll them out.
Is this paranoid approach helpful? Is suffering from a neurotic condition useful? Yeah. Paranoia is a good thing:
“Your mind is working at its best when you’re being paranoid. You explore every avenue and possibility of your situation at high speed with total clarity.”
― Banksy, Banging Your Head Against a Brick Wall“Strange how paranoia can link up with reality now and then.”
― Philip K. Dick, A Scanner Darkly“There is no literature and art without paranoia. Probably there would not be even civilization. Paranoia is the world. It is the attempt to make sense of what has not.”
― Thomas Pynchon“Only the paranoid survive.”
― Andrew Grove
See, I told you: paranoia is a good thing. It’s an asset, not a liability. Put your mental illness to work for you. Get paranoid. Set up ChangeDetection.com. Start watching your competition.
