Introduction to Competition

Competition comes from a variety of sources and needs to be considered in every sales opportunity.

Principle One of this series is “Stay in Business.” As part of that obviously important factor, the observation is made that someone will put you out of business.  It could be you, by obsoleting your current product with a new version or changing your focus, or it could be the result of someone else’s actions.  This chapter deals with “someone else,” your external competitors.  Those competitors could actually be your prospects, deciding to spend their money on something else; it could be your existing, known competitors or new competitors just entering your market.  Although, almost by default, prospects and vendors focus on price.  In reality, price is seldom the most important factor.