Getting hate mail from your competitors? You're probably doing something right
I spoke to a founder today who relaunched his business this year with a model that cuts out the middleman's fee in his industry. Suppliers in his sector have paid intermediaries around 10% of every deal for decades, and he now charges them nothing and passes part of the saving to the customer. A hundred suppliers signed up almost immediately, the first deals have closed, and he's getting a lot of hate mail, which he took as a sign he must be doing something right.
He's right, because competitors only complain when you start winning customers they thought were theirs. The harder part is turning that attention into lasting market share.
Why do competitors react when you start winning?
They notice a change in their own figures: a long-standing customer leaves, an expected deal goes elsewhere, or their name slips down the places buyers look. It usually comes down to one of four things.
You've changed the economics
Removing a fee, markup or long contract the market treats as normal forces every competitor to explain why they still charge it.
You've made buying easier
A clearer offer or a faster response wins customers who were never unhappy enough to complain, only unhappy enough to leave.
You're visible where buyers look
When a buyer asks Google or ChatGPT who to use and your name appears next to firms that have traded for twenty years, those firms lose an advantage they took for granted.
You're saying what the market avoids
Being open about how you work and what your industry gets wrong makes everyone else's vague answers look evasive.
If the complaints are about how you treat customers, take them seriously. If they're about you doing things differently, buyers are responding.
What happens if you treat the attention as the result?
Attention fades within weeks, and the market will copy anything that works. The founder's biggest competitors reportedly spend six figures a month on paid search, his content so far is generic, and he's heading into his busiest season with no system for collecting reviews. Without those foundations, the customers he's attracted will drift to whoever can pay to be seen.
As an illustration, take a £4m business where a new customer is worth £15,000 in the first year. Losing five of them a quarter to a better-known competitor costs £300,000 a year.
We see the same pattern with members clubs and wine estates that win attention with something better, then struggle to turn it into a steady flow of the right customers. It matters most where one right-fit customer is worth a five-figure sum. If your offer is much the same as everyone else's, fix that first.
How do you increase market share once competitors notice you?
Work out which customers are worth winning
Look at recent enquiries and deals to see which customer types, locations and searches turn into profitable work, and which waste your time. The founder's first deals were several times larger than he planned for, which changes where his effort should go.
Build demand you don't have to rent
If competitors can outspend you on ads, win where money doesn't decide the outcome by being the most useful, trusted answer when buyers research. We've covered how to reduce reliance on paid advertising without reducing demand and why organic growth and paid search behave so differently.
Replace generic content with proof
Buyers trust specific examples, your own results and genuine reviews far more than generic articles any competitor could have written. Make asking for reviews part of the process, and see how reviews help customers choose your business.
Move before the market catches up
Visibility and reputation take months to build, so get the foundations in place before competitors copy you and before your busiest season arrives.
Why does being recommended matter more than being noticed?
Buyers now research across Google, AI Overviews, ChatGPT and their peers before they get in touch. Your business needs to be clearly explained, consistently described across the web and backed by enough independent proof that an AI assistant will recommend it. That's what organic growth means, and why AI SEO now matters for any challenger.
Five questions to test your own business:
If a competitor matched your offer tomorrow, why would customers still choose you?
Do you know which searches brought in your last five new customers?
When a buyer asks ChatGPT or Google who to use in your market, does your name come up?
Do you ask every satisfied customer for a review?
If paid advertising stopped for a month, where would next quarter's customers come from?
If more than two answers are uncomfortable, your competitors are likely to benefit from the attention more than you.
If nobody is complaining, ask why
If nobody in your market is bothered by what you're doing, you may not be taking anything from them yet.
If you want to know which customers are worth winning and what makes them choose you over a competitor, our Growth Blueprint maps it out. Or have a short conversation with James, our founder, to find out quickly whether we can help.
