In the last Tip (February, 2012, Setting Traps), we talked about setting traps as a competitive strategy. We focused on these two questions: "What do we do that is recognized as superior to our competitors?" and "What are our competitor's weaknesses as compared to our capabilities?" Now let's take a little different slant on the subject. Let's proactively ask ourselves, "If we had to compete against us, what traps would we set?" This question can help us:


Identify our competitive deficiencies
Create desirable customer perceptions
Proactively position or effectively defend our organization and/or our capabilities


Let's use this example:


On a certain pursuit we realize that if we had to compete against us, we would emphasize our relative lack of experience in Brazil.
We've recently begun our work in Brazil and the results are promising. We lag a bit behind our competitors but are heading the right direction and gaining ground quickly.
As a result, we begin to weave into our positioning the story of our growing success in the Brazil market, and our commitment to continue this development.


Another example:


We are a company with many resources but with a reputation for working in "silos".
Our competitor has attacked us in this regard in earlier pursuits, warning customers that we "don't work well with our other Business Units and make coordination hard on our customers".
As a result, we decide to proactively and effectively show a strong united and coordinated front with our teammates.


In both of these cases, we start heading off the competitive challenges before we face them. We have taken potential weakness and turned them into strengths. By the time the competitor gets around to setting the trap, we have created immunity to it. Now we've found that if our competitor isn't as skilled in setting traps as we are in avoiding them, we have gained a strong advantage!