--- title: What It Means to Be a Competitive Displacement Business | The Sales Blog description: Click for more competitive displacement businesses capitalize on the mistakes, mishaps, & missed opportunities of their competitors. image: https://www.thesalesblog.com/hubfs/Imported_Blog_Media/shutterstock_130974773.jpg --- ### [Now booking SKO meetings for 2026/27! 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They don’t do much when it comes to selling to companies that [don’t already buy ](https://www.thesalesblog.com/blog/7-great-reasons-to-disqualify-a-prospective-client)what they sell. They aren’t looking to make markets. Instead, they are trying to gain market share by taking it from their competition. To take that business, the salesperson and their company have to create a [compelling reason](https://www.thesalesblog.com/blog/finding-compelling-reason-dream-client-change) for that company to change, and this is often true even when the company should be dissatisfied enough to want to change. Then the company doing the displacing needs to make the case that they are the right partner to help with that change, that decision being helped immensely by the salesperson’s ability to create the reason to change and the understanding of how to change. Competitive displacement in business capitalize on the mistakes, mishaps, and missed opportunities of their competitors. When the competitor gets complacent, they are exposed to being displaced. It’s important to remember that while you are trying to displace your competitor, they are actively working to displace you. While you are trying to take clients away, [your competitor is doing the same](https://www.thesalesblog.com/blog/while-you-were-sleeping-thoughts-on-competition-and-complacency)–and sometimes perhaps more effectively. The weaknesses that you exploit are often the same weaknesses you have. The core competencies of a competitive displacement business it the acquisition of new clients and the ability to retain and grow their accounts in a way that prevents defections. We pay too little attention to the idea of competitive displacements. We don’t focus enough on what makes this different at every stage of the sales process, as well as the different strategy that is required to take your competitor’s clients from them. We pay even less attention to what we need to do to [prevent ourselves from being displaced](https://www.thesalesblog.com/blog/churn-is-the-enemy) by a competitor that is as motivated as we are when it comes to gaining business. More to come here. ###### Tags: [Sales](https://www.thesalesblog.com/blog/tag/sales) [2017](https://www.thesalesblog.com/blog/tag/2017) Post by [Anthony Iannarino](https://www.thesalesblog.com/blog/author/anthony-iannarino) on July 27, 2017 Written and edited by human brains and human hands. ![Anthony Iannarino](https://www.thesalesblog.com/hubfs/ai-blog-profile-crop.jpg) Anthony Iannarino is an American writer. He has published daily at [thesalesblog.com](https://www.thesalesblog.com) for more than 14 years, amassing over 5,300 articles and making this platform a destination for salespeople and sales leaders. Anthony is also the author of four best-selling books documenting modern sales methodologies and a fifth book for sales leaders seeking revenue growth. His latest book for an even wider audience is titled, The Negativity Fast: Proven Techniques to Increase Positivity, Reduce Fear, and Boost Success. Anthony speaks to sales organizations worldwide, delivering cutting-edge sales strategies and tactics that work in this ever-evolving B2B landscape. He also provides workshops and seminars. Connect with Anthony on LinkedIn, X or Youtube. 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What we’re doing right now **is working**, even in this challenging economy. **Would you like some help?** [![Solve for Sales](https://no-cache.hubspot.com/cta/default/2922376/d3a4938b-2008-4a27-8b44-7b2223f6d035.png)](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/2922376/d3a4938b-2008-4a27-8b44-7b2223f6d035) ### Join my Weekly Newsletter for Sales Tips Join 100,000+ sales professionals in my weekly newsletter and get my *Guide to Becoming a Sales Hustler* eBook for FREE! --- ```json { "@context" : "http://schema.org/", "@type" : "BlogPosting", "author" : { "@type" : "Person", "name" : "Anthony Iannarino" }, "dateModified" : "2024-09-06T10:36:37 AM", "datePublished" : "2017-07-27 22:35:34", "description" : "Click for more competitive displacement businesses capitalize on the mistakes, mishaps, & missed opportunities of their competitors.", "headline" : "What It Means to Be a Competitive Displacement Business", "image" : { "@type" : "ImageObject", "height" : 16, "url" : "https://f.hubspotusercontent20.net/hubfs/2922376/Image/favicon.ico", "width" : 16 }, "mainEntityOfPage" : { "@id" : "https://www.thesalesblog.com/blog/means-competitive-displacement-business", "@type" : "WebPage" }, "name" : "What It Means to Be a Competitive Displacement Business", "publisher" : { "@type" : "Organization", "logo" : { "@type" : "ImageObject", "height" : 24, "url" : "https://f.hubspotusercontent20.net/hubfs/2922376/TSB/images/TSB%20Logo%20Dark.svg", "width" : 228 }, "name" : "The Sales Blog" } } ```