What would you recommend that we do at this point? We haven’t discussed your competitors at length, but unless they are truly asleep at the wheel they will also be active, in varying degrees, during mid–middle game. It’s essential not to attack your competitors by name, but you should be aware of their actions and should ghost them where you can ethically and comfortably do so. By ghosting, we mean to “raise the specter” of their weaknesses. If a competitor has a poor safety record, for instance, you can stress the importance of safety and of selecting a provider with a proven record of safety. If the competitor has had equipment failures that resulted in longer-than-average system downtimes, you can emphasize the importance of equipment reliability and the costs of excessive downtimes. Of course, if safety and reliability aren’t important to customers, raising these issues won’t have much impact. The ideal occurs when your competitors’ weaknesses correspond to the customer’s most important requirements or selection criteria.*
As chess master Ron Curry observes, “Chess is a game of relative strengths and weaknesses, and every game reflects their interplay. Each player strives to maximize his own strengths and minimize his weaknesses, while attempting to minimize his opponent’s strengths and capitalize on his weaknesses. Every successful tactic, combination, sacrifice, and attack is based on one or more weaknesses. Without them, no successful tactics can occur. Winning in chess consists of exploiting opponents’ weaknesses!”³ Arguably, this is true in business development as well, although the attacks on competitors’ weaknesses are usually more subtle than they are in chess. Of course, you can’t ghost your competitors’ weaknesses unless you know what they are, so it behooves you to understand not only how your competitors’ products and services compare with your own but also how their behavior compares. What are they doing to position themselves? What behaviors are having a positive impact on customers’ perceptions of them? Are there any negative or distracting behaviors?
You generally cannot observe your competitors’ behaviors firsthand, but you can learn about them only indirectly. Your best sources are people in the customer’s organization who favor you and want you to win. Generally, these are people you have known for some time and with whom you have an excellent relationship. We refer to these people as your sponsors. You have to be careful not to abuse the relationship by asking direct questions about your competitors, but we have found that asking the following kinds of questions can help you discover behavioral gaps:
What would you recommend that we do at this point?
Is there something we should be doing that we aren’t?
In your opinion, what are the right next steps?
How could we be more helpful to [the decision-maker]?
You might want to revisit our discussion of the living executive summary in Chapter 6. Now, as a specific opportunity is taking shape, is the opportune time to prepare and deliver a brochure executive summary focused on the customer and his or her key issues relative to his or her procurement. Meanwhile, your competitors may still be handing out their generic brochures filled with stock photographs and focused entirely on themselves and their products or services.
Ron Curry said, “Every move alters the position on the chessboard, so pay particular attention to your opponent’s last move. Immediately after each of your opponent’s last moves, ask yourself: What is the threat? What has changed?”⁴ His advice applies to business development as well. Without being paranoid about or distracted by your competitors’ actions, you should keep your eyes and ears open. Be aware of how they are positioning themselves and what they might be doing to differentiate themselves behaviorally. If you know what benchmark they are setting, you should have the knowledge required to outbehave them.