Know Who You're Actually Competing With · 1.1
Identifying Your Real Competitive Set
Working out exactly which businesses you're actually losing enquiries to — not just the biggest name on the high street, but whoever's actually winning the searches and AI answers you're not.
“Watching the agency with the biggest office is like a sprinter fixated on the runner in the next lane while the race is actually being won by someone three lanes over they never once looked at.”
Why this matters
The customer’s side
A buyer or seller doesn't care who you've historically considered your rival — they just pick whoever shows up and looks credible when they search. Your real competition is defined by search results and AI answers, not by who's been on the high street the longest.
The search engine’s side
Prerequisite — everything else in this course depends on getting this right
Not a ranking factor itself — this is the groundwork every other lesson in this course depends on. Benchmark against the wrong competitor and every comparison after this one measures against the wrong bar.
How to check yours
- 1
Search the exact terms a real buyer or seller would use — "estate agent in [your town]", "best letting agent near me" — and write down who actually appears, not who you assumed would.
- 2
Ask ChatGPT, Perplexity, or Google's AI Overview a similarly realistic question and note who gets named.
How to fix what you find
If the names that show up aren't who you expected
update your working list of competitors to match reality — the businesses actually appearing are the ones actually taking the enquiries you're not.
If you only have one obvious rival in mind
widen the list to 3–4 real competitors. A single rival makes for a weak benchmark, since one business's quiet month can look like your own win.
Keeping on top of it
Revisit twice a year — who's genuinely competing with you shifts as agencies open, close, or change focus, more often than most agents assume.
How Reyse handles this
Done With You
we help you identify your genuine competitive set from real search and AI results, not assumption.
Done For You
we track and refresh your competitive set every month as part of ongoing reporting, so the comparison never goes stale.