KEY FACTS – Strategies and tactics for competitive advantage

Key Fact: Knowing your competition is standard practice – and rightly so, but how do you sell to your strengths and not theirs?

• When you’re in the middle of a big sales campaign, it's all too easy to get hung up on what competitors are doing. But focussing on your competitor will draw the customer's attention to them too. Skilled sellers are aware of the context of competitive activity but focus on the customer and their needs.


• Our research shows skilled sellers analyse how their own, and their competitors', solutions compare, drawing up a list of criteria by which all the proposed solutions will be judged and ranking each offering against them. Most importantly, effective sellers make this judgement through the eyes of their customers, recognising it's not how they compare with the competition, but how customers think they compare with the competition, that’s crucial to success.


• Having accurately analysed the competitive landscape, skilled sellers identify competitive strengths and weaknesses. They can then develop and execute strategies to maximise one whilst mitigating the other.

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