By Simon Dudley
Excession Events

We all like to think the best product wins. It’s comforting. It appeals to our sense of fairness. It reassures engineers that all their hard work pays off and tells salespeople that if they just keep pointing out superior features, eventually the customer will see the light.

Lovely theory. Pity about reality.

A Story

I was working with a well-established vendor trying to fend off a smaller, much nimbler rival. The upstart was making the big player look slow and clumsy, pumping out software updates at a pace the larger company couldn’t match.

Engineering leadership thought they had only one option: rip up their development process and reorganize the entire team to “keep up.” It was expensive, disruptive and uncertain.

I suggested something else: stop trying to beat the startup at their own game. Play a different one.

“Talk to customers about corporate governance,” I said.

Cue the groans.

“Our sales team doesn’t understand ESG. No one in North America cares about that soft stuff. Customers have told us they don’t care. And honestly, who wants to talk about financial data? It’s boring. We want to talk about how cool our product is.”

Sure, the AV manager or IT lead probably didn’t care. But the purchasing department of a Fortune 500? Senior leadership? They absolutely cared — especially about risk.

And my client had something the competitor could never fake overnight: decades of audited financials, a NASDAQ listing, proven stability. They were the definition of a safe pair of hands.

So they shifted. They still talked to specifiers, but they also went directly to buyers at the start of the deal. They put financial stability front and center. Suddenly the conversation wasn’t about the latest firmware build. It was about de-risking a multimillion-dollar rollout.

The result? They started winning. The startup had no counter. You can’t conjure an audited balance sheet with a code sprint.

Will the smaller player eventually get there? Maybe — in 10 years, if they survive. My advice to them: pivot to SMBs, who care more about speed and price than governance. The alternative is to sneak into enterprise deals and hope purchasing doesn’t notice. Not much of a long-term strategy.

Quick Win #1 – Change the Conversation

If your competitor is winning on speed or features, shift to a decision driver they can’t quickly match: financial stability, compliance certifications or global service coverage. Make that the battlefield.

Half-Court Tennis

Most companies play half-court tennis. They watch their own side, maybe glance at the competition, and think the game is just trading shots.

Reality? The full court is much bigger. There are angles, positioning and entire parts of the game they’re ignoring.

The governance example above is just one shot in the arsenal. In “Competitive Intelligence Playbook,” I outline 12 different vectors to analyze competitors. Some are obvious. Some are sneaky. All give you options beyond “hit the ball harder.”

Supply Chains and Football Managers

Here’s one:

Do you know if your competitor builds in-house or uses an ODM? Do you know their cost structure? If you don’t, you’re guessing in big-ticket deals. On large projects, knowing how far they can drop price before losing money can mean the difference between holding your ground or getting flattened.

Another:

Where did their senior leadership come from? Like football managers, executives tend to play the game the way they always have. If the CEO came from a hardware giant, expect a hardware-first mindset. If they’re ex-software, anticipate a subscription-heavy approach. Knowing this lets you plan your moves before they make theirs.

Quick Win #2 – Map Leadership DNA

Research where your competitor’s top executives came from. Leadership habits are hard to break, and past experience often predicts future moves.

A, B or C: If You Don’t Know, You’re a C

Most vendors think they’re their resellers’ favorite partner. The problem? Every reseller says that to every vendor. Mathematically, that’s impossible.

Here’s the truth:

• A Brand: The go-to partner, the default choice.
• B Brand: The backup when A doesn’t fit.
• C Brand: We’ll sell it if the customer insists.

If you don’t know which you are, chances are you’re a C.

And resellers, you’re not off the hook. Do you know your A, B and C vendors? How often do you reevaluate them? Is it based on strategy, margin and reliability — or just who brings the best pastries to your quarterly review?

Resellers Need This Too

Resellers should be doing competitive intelligence on their vendors just as much as vendors do on each other.

Where do they manufacture? Could tariffs hit their pricing?

Can they weather a supply chain disruption, or will you be left scrambling?

Are you a priority account, or just another line on their spreadsheet?

Are they a likely acquisition target? If so, what happens to your deal flow if a larger player swoops in and changes strategy?

You don’t want to find out the hard way.

Quick Win #3 – Audit Your Partners

Once a year, review each vendor and reseller you work with. Look for vulnerabilities: tariff exposure, supply chain fragility, or signs they’re pivoting away from your market.

Win or Lose — Who Actually Knows?

Win/loss analysis is one of the most underused — and abused — tools in business.

In most companies, losing a big deal triggers a postmortem that’s part autopsy, part witch hunt. The “cause of death” is always the same:

• Price was too high.
• Product lacked a key feature.

Why? Because that’s the safest answer for a salesperson to give. No one wants to admit they misread the client, missed a political undercurrent or simply got outplayed.

To get meaningful insight, you need someone independent of the deal to investigate. And you need to look at wins as well as losses. The reasons you think you’re winning may not be the real ones.

Conclusion: Play the Whole Court

If you don’t know your competitors — their strengths, weaknesses, habits and position relative to yours — you’re playing blind.

When both players swing without knowing where the other is, it’s chaos. But if you can see the whole court while they’re still guessing? That’s not just an advantage. That’s game, set and match.

About the Author

Simon Dudley is a man who believes in paying taxes, waiting his turn, the rule of law and being a decent human being. He writes about strategy, technology, society, education, business, Excession Events, and science.

With 35 years in the technology business, multiple Patents and a background in fields as diverse as Design, Engineering, Product Management, Sales and Product Marketing.

As head of Excession Events he is looking to work with vendors and resellers who are looking to compete more effectively in a world where products are increasingly standardized.

His latest book, “Competitive Intelligence Playbook,” is available on Amazon. He can be reached at simon@excessionevents.com.