Zen and the Art of Talking Trash

Watching competitors trash each other on social media is 100% a guilty pleasure.

But put a keyboard in front of me and I would have a hard time doing it myself.

I don’t have stats to back it up, but I’m probably not alone in feeling this way.

Yet here we are in 2023 and most tech categories are highly competitive. There are dozens, if not hundreds, of alternatives that we’re up against. We have to say something about them, right?

Maybe. Also maybe not.

When to call out a competitor by name

First, look at the maturity of your category.

• Mature category = you should call out your competitors

• Immature category = you should promote your category

If you compete in a mature category, you need to proactively explain why you're different from competitors. Why should someone purchase your solution vs. the category leaders?

Again, many mature categories have hundreds of players competing for market share. So you need to answer the question that everyone is asking when they visit your site: "why you?"

If you are the category leader, then this isn’t as necessary. Punching down isn’t a good look. We can look at some leaders as examples:

• Salesforce: the undisputed leader in CRM. No comparison pages or mentions of competitors on their site.

• Zoom: the undisputed leader in Video Conferencing. No comparison pages or mentions of competitors on their site.

• Shopify: the undisputed leader in e-Commerce Platforms. No comparison pages or mentions of competitors on their site.

Now, if you're in an immature category, you can get away with just focusing on calling out the "old way” that your target buyers uses to address their problems. Explain how and why it's inefficient compared to the new way that your category solves it.

When to respond to competitors that call YOU out

I’m not talking about comparison landing pages here. This is common, and again, belong on most companies’ websites.

If a competitor misrepresents your product on their website, then reach out to them with the facts and evidence to back it up. Most will comply.

OK, but what are we supposed to do about trash talk on LinkedIn or X?? Especially if the post is gaining traction and engagement!

It can be tempting to give the offender a taste of their own medicine. But should you?

I moderate a community for Competitive Intelligence professionals called Healthy Competition and asked them what they thought. Here’s a summary of the results:

• Majority consensus: do nothing

• Minority consensus: escalate to executives and brainstorm if a response is necessary

But I agreed most with this comment:

In other words, ditch the ego and think about your target audience. What would resonate most with them?

It'll be different for everyone (I know I know... classic marketing answer).

Doing nothing is probably the safest answer. But if you handle it right, you might actually win over some people.

💚Andy

P.S. If you liked this, consider listening to the Healthy Competition podcast or joining the community!