Fight the enemies strategy, not his forces. At this stage, if things are proceeding well, your competitors will go over to the offensive. Yes, the offensive – because you have created a situation so dangerous to your competitors, by threatening to displace them from the environment, they have to attack you to get back into the game. Thus it is normal, even in the most successful sales campaigns, to have spikes of offensive competitor activity late in the campaign. This does not mean you have done something wrong (though it may: it depends on whether you have successfully mobilized the population).
At this point the tendency is to go for the jugular and seek to destroy the enemy’s forces in open battle. This is rarely the best choice, because provoking a major showdown plays into enemy hands by forcing a decision. Instead, attack the competitor’s strategy: if he is seeking to recapture the allegiance of a segment of the contacts, then co-opt them against him. The permutations are endless but the principle is the same – fight the enemy’s strategy, not his forces.
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I enjoyed your article and in the midst of the competitions attack myself, my first i might add. If possible, could you elaborate on ‘co-opting’ and methods used to do the ‘co-opting’.
Thanks
Thanks, pThomas. This is Sun Tzu stuff, deep meanings and lots of room for interpretation. How I might think about it were I you is to ask a couple questions:
1. What is the outcome my competitor seeks?
2. How do I prevent that outcome or how do I ensure that the outcome, if obtained, benefits me and harms my competitor?
A
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