Playing Fair While Creating and Unfair Advantage

"For most of us in sales, winning new business often means taking that business away from a competitor. The euphemism we use to describe stealing a client from a competitor is called 'a competitive displacement,' which sounds a lot nicer than 'eating their lunch.' However, if this sounds harsh, know that while you are trying to take clients from your competitors, they are trying to steal your clients from you. Like other forms of competition, selling requires a sense of fairness, a set of ethics, ground rules, if you will. Certain behaviors are off limits, like lying about your competitor, talking bad about them, providing kickbacks, or misleading people into believing something that isn't true as it pertains to about how you can better serve them. These dirty tricks are off limits, and they aren't how you gain a real advantage. That said, there are ways you can create an unfair advantage and position yourself to win new clients that are presently being served by your competition."