If you trash your competitor, you are likely to trash yourself

During any conversation with potential customers or customers you need to avoid to trash your competitor as this is likely to have a negative effect on your image and business too.

Often during meetings and telephone calls your competitors become one of the items discussed. Then you have to avoid to say anything really negative about them.

The worst thing you can do is presenting bogus reasons why their solutions are less good or your solutions are better than the ones of the competitor. People know more than they say they know and by using the Internet they have access to a vast amount of information and knowledge.

When you start trashing the competitor it is often perceived as being on a losing strike.
Any negative statement will reflect negatively on you too.

However you can state the main differences in function, features, market segment or even years of experience.
Try to steer the conversation away from your competitor to another subject like:
- Your references or successes
- Back to the problem that your customer needs to get solved

Your competitor has its’ merits and benefits too, else he wouldn’t be perceived as your competitor by the customer.