This is one of the quickest ways to lose credibility personally and professionally. It is important to acknowledge competitors in your space, without doing so will come across somewhat naive. Insulting or talking bad about your competitors is not going to do anything but harm you.
To impress when talking about your competitors it is important to follow the current steps;
- Acknowledge you have competitors and talk about what they are doing in their specific markets.
- Mention how you are different from your competitors and why a customer should choose you instead of them.
- Acknowledge the userbase that they may have and look at their backgrounds.
The more clued up you seem about your competitors the better. It will show potential investors that you are an expert in your market and have looked at everything carefully.
Do not;
- Abuse your competitors or call them immature names.
- Not acknowledge them at all.
- Say you have no competitors, this shows a certain level of naivety.
Never think that having competitors is bad! It often can show that there is a demand in the marketplace for your product or service. If you can show a competitor is already reaching a certain level of success then there is no reason why you couldn’t do the same – or beat them at their game. So make sure you’ll know how to talk about competitors in your pitch – by accepting them, but not talking bad about them. Stay classy and professional.