How to Handle the Competition When They Copy Your Work

It's time for another edition of the?Art & Science of Complex Sales!?If you're new, this is where we talk about all things related to putting HOW you sell at the core of your business -- from sales process execution to best practices in sales coaching to driving winning behaviors to enabling growth in your sales organization.

Every week, I share ONE idea or strategy that sales leaders and teams can use to enable consistent growth for their organization. Whether you're a sales leader, sales consultant, sales manager, sales enablement expert or sales team member ready to accelerate your performance -- you'll find one action item that you can implement each week to get you one step closer to your goals.

My mission is to elevate the sales profession with technology and partnerships so that we can all improve our sales effectiveness and raise the bar in sales.

Now, onto this week's topic! ????

What to do when competitors copy your work

A local competitor has been regularly checking out Membrain over the past few years, and not because they want our tool to help them sell more effectively. They don’t want to use our product - they seem to want to steal our ideas.

In their latest investor update, their CEO describes their “biggest product addition in 20 years,” which happens to bear an extreme resemblance to our account growth module that we launched with our popular?Growth Grid?more than a year ago. They’re calling it “Growth Grid,” which seems like an odd coincidence...

It’s simultaneously frustrating and flattering when another company stalks your work and tries to copy it. Mostly, it’s flattering and shows you that you’re on the right track.

So what do you do when a competitor copies your work?

1. Take it as a Compliment

You know you’ve got something that people want when someone else wants to be you.

Elite athletes, artists, musicians, and successful entrepreneurs - one thing they all have in common is copycats.

So when someone copies your work and tries to sell it as their own, the first thing to do is replace any anger or frustration with the realization that it means you’re doing something right.

Of course, in some cases, you may want or need to take legal action. But in many cases, the copying is done in such a fashion that all you can do is suck it up and carry on. I mean, they’ll always be behind the curve, and hopefully, customers will pick the vendor that can provide the most value.

At Membrain, our product has always focused on addressing the real needs of salespeople and their leaders in a beautiful, user-friendly way that helps teams reach their growth targets. Our process workflows, visualizations, and checklists are among our proudest inventions, and we’re glad they are helping so many people.

Having competitors copy our work proves that we’re on the right track.

2. Recognize that Nobody Can Steal Your Vision

When you get over the aggravation of realizing someone has copied your work, you take some time to evaluate your strengths and recognize that what makes you great isn’t a feature or a benefit. It’s who you are. It’s your vision, your insights, and your ability to execute.

Imagine a student leaning over your shoulder to copy your homework or your answers on a test. They might pass that test on the strength of your answers.

But they’ll never be you. Unless they put in the work and develop the skills to perform on their own, they’ll always be a bit of a mess - and at least two steps behind you.

What makes you great isn’t a feature. It’s your vision, insights, and ability to execute.

At Membrain, our strength is in our absolute commitment to elevating the sales profession. Our vision is what drives us, and no assortment of features can ever compete with our ability to see and understand what the sales profession needs to be effective - and our ability to deliver on our vision.

No matter how many times anyone copies one of our innovative features, we’ll always be two steps ahead with new features that change the game again. In fact - we’re getting ready to release a whole new model that will change the way new customers engage with Membrain, making it more accessible than ever before.

3. Keep Helping Customers

When someone copies your work - the greatest revenge is simply to keep doing what you’re doing.

If your work is based on helping your customers to elevate their game, then you have nothing to lose from someone stealing an idea here or there and clunkily trying to implement it for themselves.

When someone copies your work, assuming you don’t have grounds to contest their theft, then the best thing you can do is keep making amazing products and delivering amazing services.

At Membrain, our revenge is to keep working with our customers and partners to make sure that everything we do is excellent, that we are constantly providing improved tools and resources, that we are responsive to the needs of our customers.

And that our product is always stable, easy to use, complete, accessible, beautiful, and provides the absolute best solution on the market to make complex b2b sales more effective. To help our customers make HOW they sell into their competitive advantage.

We would love to show you what it’s like to work with an innovator - please?book a demo.

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This article was first published on the Membrain blog here: https://www.membrain.com/blog/what-to-do-when-competitors-copy-your-work