Dumping on the competion

Criticising your competitors is always a risky proposition. The SMH Enterprise Blog discusses an example of this.

Valerie Khoo's experience with a real estate agent is pretty typical of what we see in the IT industry. The first agent did the right thing referring her to a competitor that could help. The competitor could resist dumping on the guy who referred her.

This sort of behaviour is unprofessional and most customers hate it. When I look at another technician's work I generally don't comment on the quality of the work unless they've done something seriously wrong.

Sadly, a lot of computer techs don't see it that way. They can't wait to big note themselves on how good they are and how bad the previous guy was. All this confirms in the client's mind is that we are all cowboys.

It's always best to be positive with a client. Even when recommending one product over another, I find it better to focus on the positives of the preferred product rather than the negatives of the the others.

There's karma in this too. Its too easy in the IT industry to be negative given the behaviour of many of the participants. By being positive, you feel better and so does your customer.

The simple rule is don't be negative: Don't dump on your competitors.