12 Differences Between Incumbents And Challengers (And How Challengers Win)

Every industry has its incumbents.

Established players who come at the top of buyers’ category ladders.

Like McKinsey and Accenture for consulting.

Salesforce and Hubspot for CRM.

Or Adobe and Canva for creative software.

And then you have the challengers.

New and upcoming players who try to get a hold in the market.

They compete against the incumbents of their categories.

Incumbents and challengers have key differences:

• Incumbents play to defend their castles. Challengers play to tear down the gates.
• Incumbents rely on unlimited resources. Challengers must rely on speed and focus.
• Incumbents have bureaucracy. Challengers must write their rules on the go.
• Incumbents can offer the same value as others and keep winning. Challengers must offer something different to have a chance.
• Incumbents have to speak to everyone. Challengers must speak to someone to be heard.
• Incumbents invented the existing game. Challengers must invent a new game to win.
• Incumbents’ services are always the safe choice for many things. Challengers’ services must be the best at one thing.
• Incumbents tell a common story to avoid unnecessary attention. Challengers must tell a new one to get attention.
• Incumbents can compete on multiple fronts. Challengers must pick their battles carefully.
• Incumbents are stuck in their positions. Challengers can reposition any day.
• Incumbents are afraid to lose what they have. Challengers aspire to win what they lack.
• Every incumbent was once a challenger. Every challenger either fails, stagnates, or becomes the next incumbent.

These differences dictate the laws of competition.

So you should position your business accordingly.

Challengers can’t beat incumbents by imitating them.

They don’t have the same strengths.

But yet, many challengers make the mistake of copying the incumbents.

They go wide too early instead of going deep.

They copy their safe, vague language.

And they try to make their solutions similar.

Guess what buyers choose then?

Of course the “safe” choice.

So if your brand is a challenger, don’t try to beat incumbents at their own game.

Turn your size into an advantage.

Be specific.

Be different.

Talk different.

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