Having a relationship with your competitors is much more likely to help you than it is to hurt you. I’ve written about competition a few times on this blog (see the competition category), and I often speak about it as well. There is so much good that can come out of being on good terms with your competitor. Something recently happened here in town that showed me yet another benefit of this type of relationship that I hadn’t thought of before.

 

I’m going to tell this story and leave the names of the individuals and companies out to protect the innocent (and the guilty).

 

Company A had 2 local sales reps who were both excellent networkers. They both spent nearly 2 years building a very strong client base. During that time they both had a good relationship with one of the sales reps from Company B. Recently Company A had some major problems and couldn’t fulfill their promises to their customers. The 2 reps from Company A quickly saw what was happening. They both have a lot of integrity and quickly left the company to pursue other opportunities.

 

Both of these reps had spent a substantial amount of time building relationships through networking, and valued the relationships they’d developed with their customers. Because they wanted their customers to be taken care of they spoke with the sales rep they knew from Company B. They both knew that this former competitor could take care of their customers so they referred ALL of their former clients to the sales rep that worked for Company B.

 

Can you imagine having one of your competitors giving you ALL of the business they had spent the last 2 years developing? It gets better. Company B has over a dozen local sales reps. Only this one individual knew BOTH of the sales reps from Company A since they invested time networking and the other sales reps at Company B did not. Because they went out and networked and built relationships with their competitors they received ALL of the business from the former Company A sales reps.

 

Pick up the phone. Call one of your competitors today and find a time that you can get together for lunch. You’ll find that they’re people too, and you never know where that relationship might lead.

 

Happy networking!

 

Scott Ingram