Most founders I work with are fighting the wrong battle. They spend their energy trying to out-feature, out-price, or out-talk the competition. And they keep losing deals they should win.
The battlefield isn’t where they think it is.
The Mistake I See Constantly
Here’s how it usually sounds: “We just need to show buyers why we’re better than [competitor].”
So they build comparison charts. They train their sales team to poke holes in the competitor’s offer. They operate from a sense of fear thinking they need to outwit or outshine their competitor.
That’s not a strategy. That’s a losing fight.
You’re not competing with your competitor. I’ll say that again – you are not competing with your competitor. You’re competing in your buyer’s brain — that is where the battle is won or lost.
What Avis Understood That Most Brands Miss
In the 1960s, Avis Car Rental was stuck at number two behind Hertz.
The obvious move would have been to attack Hertz. Undercut them on price. Claim superiority on some feature. Try to dislodge Hertz from the top position.
Instead, Avis did something counterintuitive. They leaned into the gap. Their campaign ran with a single line: “We’re number two. We try harder.”
It became one of the most effective campaigns in advertising history.
Not because buyers love an underdog story — though they do. But because Hertz was already anchored in every buyer’s mind, and Avis used that anchor to define themselves. They didn’t fight the mental real estate Hertz owned. They built right next door.
What the Research Actually Says
Al Ries and Jack Trout formalized this in their 1981 book Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind.
The core argument is one I’ve returned to more times than I can count: the competition isn’t happening in the market. It’s happening inside your prospect’s already-overloaded brain.
Buyers aren’t making decisions on a blank slate. They come in with priors, associations, and existing leaders already occupying category space in their heads. Kahneman identified this as the anchoring bias. That is, people rely heavily on the first piece of information they encounter when making decisions. In this case, people already have Hertz on the brain.
If you ignore this psychological reality, you risk deals and falling into the abyss of obscurity. If you work with it, you can win without needing to be the biggest player in the room.
Before and After: The Difference This Makes
Before applying this: experts defend and justify why they’re different from the competition. The buyer nods. The deal never materializes.
After applying this: the same expert acknowledges the competition then positions their offer as the specific alternative for a specific buyer situation. The buyer feels seen, heard, and understood. The competitor does the heavy lifting of establishing category familiarity. The founder walks in with context already built.
Same product. Completely different result.
The Anchor Test
Here’s the rule I use with clients — I call it the Anchor Test.
Before you pitch, ask yourself: what name is already living in my buyer’s head for this category? Whatever that answer is, that’s your anchor. Your job is not to remove it. Your job is to position relative to it in a way that makes your offer the obvious choice for a specific type of buyer.
If you can’t answer that question, you risk fighting the wrong battle.
Your Competitor Is Doing You a Favor
Every time a market leader spends money on awareness, they’re warming up your buyer for you.
They’re building the category. They’re doing the education. They’re establishing that this problem is worth solving and that a solution exists.
Your job is to show up as the right alternative — not the replacement, the alternative — for the buyer who has a reason to look beyond the obvious choice.
Stop fearing the Hertz in your market. Use them.
Your competitor isn’t your obstacle. They’re your context. And context, used well, closes deals.
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