Twisting the Knife
One of my coworkers (a sales guy) decided to tap into a competitor’s client base because he’d heard - from reliable sources, I might add - that this particular vendor was going down. What better time to swoop than when the nest is falling apart? Anyway, he called one of the largest clients, gave him the pitch and was met not only with disinterest but outright nastiness…”What! That’s not true! Who do you think you are?” Needless to say, the pot had been stirred. The client freaked out (which you can’t really blame him for) and questioned the vendor (obviously). The vendor, like a toddler who’s dropped all his sweets, is now trying to punish our company. Lawsuit this, slander that. Yadda, yadda, yadda. Was my coworker disreputable? Should he have rested on his haunches and waited for the baby birds to flail from the nest before going in for the kill? It’s a dirty game, folks. Yes, it’s unfortunate that the business is suffering. But if you’re not honest with your clients, chances are someone else will be.
November 20th, 2008 at 1:26 pm
You say the other company is “going down” - but they’re suing you? If they’re really going out of business, that seems pretty desparate. Not sure what I think of calling their clients, though. Maybe that’s fair game, it’s not like there are laws against calling your competitors’ business- is there? Taht would seem anti-competitive. I can see why you wouldn’t be allowed to spread rumors about their demise - probably some liability there if it isn’t a fact yet.
November 20th, 2008 at 4:49 pm
Thank you for taking the time to comment, Ed - much appreciated! Wanted to clarify, though: our competitor isn’t suing us…they’re just threatening to. As you’ve alluded to, it wouldn’t make much sense to waste money suing a competitor when you can’t afford to pay the rent. Essentially, we’ve just got an attorney puffing his chest.
November 24th, 2008 at 7:30 am
[...] and reinforcing the belief that they are constantly growing their market share. Oh, and surely this sort of thing never happens in industries other than [...]
December 1st, 2008 at 8:46 am
[...] highlights - one of our competitors, expected to fold within months, builds out one of their last exhibits; and our biggest “competitor” freaks out when we [...]