Know-How Exchange : Strategy

Here's what I would do with your competitor's list of clients:

Find out who THEIR competitors are.

Market the benefits of your product/service to that audience!

The bigger customer, the better? Not necessarily. Think hard about the potentially long, painful sales cycle. My own company learned the hard way that getting Dow Chemical on board takes ten times as long as getting ten smaller (but still recognizable in the industry) customers on board. Much more worthwhile and profitable, too.

Shelley

Den E V led off perfectly in my opinion.

It's certain you can do what you're asking, and others have pointed out the risks. It was prudent to ask about this opportunity.

A head-to-head battle may or may not be appropriate for your company, unless Everyone in your company has the will and the funding to pursue it.

Also, considering that you asked the question to start with, you might want to review the book Marketing Warfare, as well as Den E V's referenced, The Art of War.

Both are deceptively easy to read.

Very RISKY approach you are thinking. Your competitor has already established a relationship with clients and is not afraid to inform/support them with any kind of information for YOU. So be careful when you talk to the competitors clients...Might turn negative for you and positive for your competition..

good luck

Can you market or sell thru a third party? One fairly aggressive approach might be to have a third party organization which is selling the same types of products call those customers to ask them how the solution is working for them, and what they like most about the vendor and service.

In most cases, they will be happy, but you can gather information about the types of companies who use they type of solution you offer, their reasons for doing so, and some business case issues. You can identify the best customers to generate demographics of an ideal customer for your firm, then use D&B or other data to build a customer list. In a few cases, you may discover unhappy customers - and this will help you avoid the same mistakes and give you ammo in future competitive situations.

I would NOT under any circumstances "badmouth the competition" - leave that to them. For more info, check out my website (listed on my profile).