Business is a funny thing. Or at least I think it is. Perhaps it isn’t business that is funny at all but rather the people in businesses. I digress.

I am a firm believer when trying to get ahead of the competition to always bark up, not down. If I had a 30% hold on my market and my competitor has 60%, I would do all I could to get them to acknowledge and talk about me and my company.

If I am the larger of the two companies in a niche, I do everything I can to pretend I am the only business in the niche. When asked a question about the competition in this situation, I would reply with: “I haven’t heard of them, are they any good?” Nothing gets under people’s skin more than being willfully ignored and neglected.

What are some ways to get the bigger business talking about you?

1. Make big innovations – such is the case with Bing in the search world. Bing turned the ship and started attacking Google on its flanks for market share. Do you like how Google was forced to copy Bing’s image results page? That didn’t take long, not to mention the number of other areas Google was forced to make changes.

Google chief executive Eric Schmidt on Friday said that Microsoft’s Bing search engine was the company’s main threat, not Facebook or Apple.

That is a pretty bold statement to even be mentioning the competition. If I were Eric, which I’m not, I wouldn’t utter Bing unless it was accompanied by a damning statement. Eric, in essence, validated and acknowledged what Bing was doing was not only successful but encouraging them to attack the flanks.

2. Constantly promoting your successes – If you are a smaller business trying to garner the attention of the bigger guys, one way to ensure this is to constantly update your successes no matter how small they are. Thanks to Jason Calacanis for this tip. When he started WebBlogs Inc. (which sold for A LOT of $) they would announce every new feature, widget, setting option and so on like it was the world’s greatest invention since sliced bread.

Nothing gets under people’s skin more than being told everyday about something new your competition is doing to kick your ass in the market. This is the look at me play, and it works very well. If their eyes are on you and the things that you are doing, their progress and drive gets a little slower and slower trying to out-smart you and your team.

How do you avoid talking about the competition?

1. Deflection through humor – If your competition is big enough that you can’t pretend they don’t exist, then deflect the comment with a humorous statement such as:

Person 1: What do you think of competition’s new widget?

You: Their new widget? I haven’t had time to look at it. I barely have enough time to let my dog outside.

2. Outdo them – Like a good magician, present the audience with a cooler, shinier object for them to be fascinated with. The key to pulling this off is being totally excited about that new thing you are talking about.

Person 1: What do you think of competition’s new widget?

You: We’ve been doing that for a year and it works great, but we are releasing our Beta 3.1 doohickey that will make their widget look like a whiffle bat at a Major League game. And here is why….

Conclusion:

Business is just as much mental as it is anything else. If you are fortunate enough to not have any competition to worry about, you are either the only game in town or in a pretty exclusive niche, to which I wish you the best. If, on the other hand, you are in a pool filled with sharks, it’s time to become a dolphin. (P.S. I am the king of horrible analogies.) Nevertheless, you know what I mean. Aim hit and deflect the ankle biters. Plus, have fun doing it.

Photo Cred *http://barkingdogmc.com