Competitor Relationships – Why You Should Be Developing Them, PART ONE

By: John Erickson – CEO of Credit Service Intl. – Content Editor of R.O. Hammer Companies

If you are active in the professional services industry, you probably have existing relationships with your competitors. These relationships may be limited to social interactions at conferences or connections on LinkedIn, or maybe you even have a relationship or two that extends to sharing ideas. No matter what your current level of interaction with competitors is, growing your network of competitor relationships and strengthening those connections represents a tremendous value for your business that is often overlooked and untapped.

When was the last time you took stock of your existing competitor relationships?

Let’s talk about networking.

Depending on who you ask, it can be difficult to pin down when the term “networking” became a household phrase. Experts say the phrase was first coined in the late ‘70s or early ‘80s.

If you didn't know:

Wikipedia defines (Business) "Networking" as:
The practice of building relationships with individuals and businesses for professional purposes.

In 2025, it’s fair to say you would be hard pressed to find a successful professional who has not engaged in networking to build relationships with clients, vendors, and colleagues. We can all agree it’s a great way to earn business, find new tools, and make deals.

That being said, a quick word search of the nearly 1200-word Wikipedia page on networking proves the word “competitor” fails to appear even a single time.

That does not mean you should not be networking to develop competitor relationships.

If the term networking really was coined in the 1970s or 80s, I think that few people would argue against the fact that the business world has changed a bit since that time. It’s honestly not a reach to say that the lives of professionals have changed since then. With the advent of the internet, the widespread adoption of social media, the smartphone, A.I., and so on, the world has become a smaller, more connected place than at any time in human history. Developing and maintaining business relationships, even with colleagues in other parts of the country or in other countries, has never been easier.

Though our predecessors were not afforded the same technological tools and conveniences we have today, there is still much to be learned from their business world. One of the most vital lessons we can learn is the value of human connections. Without instant messaging or video calls, our predecessors relied heavily on face-to-face interactions and building strong relationships. They understood that business is fundamentally about people, not just transactions.

My point is that the same lesson does not apply just to people in your network who are clients or are people you transact with. Competitor relationships offer significant value of a different kind, and this lesson genuinely holds true for these relationships as well.

As modern professionals, as compared to our predecessors, a significant benefit to our generation is that technology has conveniently removed some of the stigma around these relationships, or at a minimum, has made developing and managing these relationships much easier. It no longer takes traveling to an annual trade conference and a social hour to meet new faces in your industry. I would be hesitant to say that anyone in my business network would consider it a faux pas to send a LinkedIn connection request to an unknown direct competitor in their industry. It’s a commonplace occurrence–daily and worldwide. I know I do it regularly, and I often end up scheduling calls or Zoom meetings to connect further to share projects and ideas, solely from those initial connections.

Ready for another definition?

Coopetition - According to Wikipedia

Coopetition or co-opetition (sometimes spelled "coopertition" or "co-opertition") is a neologism coined to describe cooperative competition. Coopetition is a portmanteau of cooperation and competition.

Yes, I occasionally see some of these competitors' names on RFP submissions I am competing for, but I look at it like this: I am confident in my organization's abilities, I believe in my team, and I know there is an abundance of business opportunities out there. I’m not looking to share (or receive) trade secrets in my interactions with competitors (most of the time, I wouldn’t even need to), I am, however, transparent about how I am looking to gain value from their experience and also about my desire to return 2X the value to the relationship as well.

I believe that the value of coopetition outweighs any potential downside of communicating with competitors, and in my experience, that value is most often apparent to all parties from the start.

These days, it’s pretty rare that I start a project or look at making a vendor change without reaching out to at least one other agency owner or operator in my network.

Ask yourself: How much energy have you invested in the relationships with your direct competitors? It may be time to up your game.

What’s Next?

I have already mentioned a couple of the direct benefits of developing competitor relationships (sharing experience with similar projects and vendor recommendations and referrals), but be sure to check out the second and third installments of this blog post series to discover more about the benefits of these relationships and also about how to develop and bring value to them.