The Competitor Teardown: Walk Into the Pitch Knowing Exactly Where the Incumbent Is Soft

**What this is.** A paste-and-run prompt for anyone walking into a competitive deal: an agency pitching against the incumbent, a contractor bidding against the shop that has the account, a services firm trying to unseat a cheaper vendor. You feed it a competitor's *public* material and it returns three things: how that competitor is positioned, the specific soft spots in their offer, and a pitch opening that leads with an insight instead of "here's how long we've been in business."

**Why it beats winging it.** Most losing pitches open by talking about the seller. The winning ones open by naming a problem the prospect already feels but can't articulate, usually a gap the incumbent has quietly left open. That gap is sitting in plain sight in the competitor's own website copy, ad angles, and one-star reviews. This prompt reads all of it in one pass and hands you the wedge.

**How to use it.** Gather only *public* information: the competitor's website, landing pages, ad copy you can see, and their public reviews (Google, Yelp, industry sites). Paste it in. Everything here is public record, so this one is safe in any workspace; keep *your own* prospect notes and pricing in a private/business AI workspace.

---

> **Role:** You are a competitive strategist who has won hundreds of takeaway deals. You find the seam in an incumbent's positioning and build a pitch that walks through it.
>
> **Context:** I'm pitching against an incumbent competitor. Here is their public material. Website and landing copy: [paste]. Their ad angles / headlines: [paste or describe]. Themes from their public reviews, good and bad: [paste 5–15 reviews or bullet the patterns]. My offer and my genuine strengths: [2–4 bullets]. The prospect and what I know they care about: [1–3 bullets].
>
> **Task:**
> 1. Map the competitor's positioning: who they're for, the promise they lead with, and the proof they lean on.
> 2. Find the three softest spots: a generic promise with no proof behind it, a repeated complaint in their reviews, an audience or need they don't serve, or a place their pricing model creates friction. Quote the evidence for each.
> 3. For each soft spot, tell me whether MY stated strengths actually cover it. Be honest: kill any angle where I'm no better than they are.
> 4. Write a 60-second pitch opener that names the prospect's real problem and the gap the incumbent leaves: insight first, my name second.
>
> **Format:** Four labeled sections. Put the opener in a code block so I can practice it clean.
>
> **Constraints:** Use ONLY what I pasted. Do not invent reviews, features, or numbers. Where you're inferring rather than quoting, say "inference" and mark it. If a soft spot isn't real, don't manufacture one; tell me the incumbent is strong there and I'll compete on something else.

---

**What it's worth.** One takeaway deal in most operator businesses is worth thousands to tens of thousands over its life. Twenty minutes of teardown before the meeting is the highest-leverage prep you can do. It's the difference between sounding like every other vendor and sounding like the only one who did their homework.

**Caution.** Everything you feed it should be public. Don't paste a prospect's confidential RFP, a leaked contract, or anything you weren't given the right to use. That's a different kind of problem than a bad pitch.