Position against the problem, not the competitor
Mentioning a competitor by name in a sales conversation signals you are playing on their terms. Describe the problem better than anyone else and you become the obvious choice without naming anyone.
When a prospect asks how you compare to a named competitor, the natural instinct is to list your advantages. That response does two things wrong: it validates the competitor's frame (they set the comparison criteria) and it makes you sound reactive rather than authoritative. The prospect remembers the comparison table, not your differentiation.
A stronger move: acknowledge the question briefly, then reframe around the problem the prospect described earlier. Something like "Let me show you how we think about the specific challenge you raised and why our approach matters for your situation." This keeps you in control of the narrative and focuses on your strengths in context — not in abstract comparison.
The deeper principle is that buyers buy outcomes, not feature matrices. When you position against competitors, you are describing features. When you position against the problem, you are describing a better outcome. The competitor becomes irrelevant because you are not even running in the same race. The buyer walks away remembering your understanding of their challenge, not your list of bullet-point advantages.