Direct vs. Indirect Competitors (6 Real-World Examples)

Not all competitors look alike.

Some might have a portion of your functionality. Others might serve your same target audience but in a different way. And then there are the familiar faces your sales team competes with in every deal.

To be successful in today’s market, you need to stay on top of the two most common types of competitors for your business: direct and indirect.

If you don’t? Revenue will be slipping through your fingers. When we spoke with 300+ revenue leaders, 91% said that their deals were more competitive last year.

Let’s nip that in the bud by walking through each type of competitor. We’ll also provide examples of each and tactics you can use to handle them.

📌 Looking for tactical steps to launch a compete program? Download our guide 👇

What Are Direct Competitors?

Direct competitors are businesses, products, or services that target the same market as you and solve similar problems for your buyer. These competitors are the ones that have the same features, boast similar value propositions, and pop up in the majority of your deals.

Key Characteristics 

Think of direct competitors as your product’s mirror image: they target the same buyers, tackle the same challenges, and often have overlapping features. Here’s how to spot one:

• They go after the same audience – If you’re focused on a specific persona or industry, they’re right there with you.
• They mirror your features – If your product includes real-time chat, chances are they have something that sounds a lot like it.
• They promise similar value – Whether it’s saving time, cutting costs, or boosting productivity, their pitch sounds eerily familiar.
• They show up in most of your deals – Because you’re both so similar, prospects usually compare you head-to-head.

Yes, direct competitors can be tough. But the good news is, if you’re so closely matched, even a small edge in branding, user experience, or support can help you stand out.

📌 Not sure who all your competitors are? Check out our blog on how to conduct a competitive landscape analysis the right way.

Examples of Direct Competitors

Let’s get specific and walk through some real-life direct competitors:

• Netflix vs. MAX
• Blackberry vs. Apple iPhone
• Intercom vs. Drift

Netflix vs. MAX

The reason I’m kicking off on this one is because we did a deeeep dive into how these two streaming services compete with one another.

While both HBO and Netflix disrupted the television industry (one through prestige programming and the other through technological innovation) they now step directly on each other’s turf.

In this case, both have tried to minimize the other’s competitive differentiator. HBO was a latecomer to the streaming world and struggled to cut the cord before launching MAX in 2020 to keep up with Netflix. 

Meanwhile, Netflix began producing their own in-house shows with some of the biggest names in Hollywood in order to build a proprietary database of must-watch television – a lot like HBO had done for the last fifty years.

BlackBerry vs. iPhone

Apple all but eliminating BlackBerry from mainstream usage is one of the biggest examples of a direct competitor winning through brand, competitive positioning, and product innovation.

We also wrote about how this infamous rivalry played out here. 

But here’s the TL;DR:

BlackBerry rapidly gained market share as the pre-eminent smartphone, known for being used by business people.

Blackberry’s position in the market is where Apple saw their opportunity to zag; they positioned and built a smartphone for everybody else. Instead of trying to be a better business phone, they went “What if smartphones were… fun?”

When Steve Jobs announced the iPhone to the world, he wasn’t shy about highlighting their biggest competitor’s shortcomings – he basically pointed at BlackBerry and said “that’s so 2006.” 

The iPhone touchscreen opened a world of new use cases, and then the App Store dropped, pouring gasoline on their red-hot growth. Within six years, Apple was moving 125 million iPhones while BlackBerry… wasn’t.

Intercom vs. Drift

We’ll go B2B for our last direct competitor example: Intercom and Drift. Both of these companies made their bones in the chatbot category and have been competing for market leadership since.

We broke down Drift’s comparison page in detail over on The Compete Network (check out that episode here if you want the full scoop), but here’s the fast and short of it:

While both companies offer very similar features – live chat, chatbots, messaging campaigns, the works – they’ve planted their flags in different territories. Intercom built their name on customer support and engagement, while Drift pivoted hard toward sales acceleration. 

Same chat widget, totally different positioning. Intercom’s all about helping your existing customers and building relationships through support, while Drift’s laser-focused on turning website visitors into sales meetings and pipeline. 

Tactics to Handle Direct Competitors

Okay, so what are some of the ways you can beat your direct competitors? Here are two tactics you need to start using.

1. Establish Your Value Wedge

Grab a piece of paper (or open your favorite drawing app) and sketch out a quick Venn diagram with three circles:

• Circle 1: Everything your product can do
• Circle 2: Everything your competitor’s product can do
• Circle 3: What your buyer actually needs

Where you and your competitor overlap is product parity – the “yeah, yeah, everyone does that” stuff. Where your competitor’s capabilities match your buyer’s needs but you don’t? That’s your danger zone – prepare your sales team to handle those objections.

But that sweet, sweet slice where YOUR capabilities overlap with your buyer’s needs (and your competitor’s don’t)? That’s your value wedge.

That’s where you plant your flag and build your story.

2. Use Quick Dismisses in Sales

The best competitive selling technique is to proactively get ahead of what your competitors will say or do.

This is where you can put your value wedge in action. And one way to do this is by building killer quick dismisses. Here’s how to do it in four steps:

1. Acknowledge the Competitor’s Strengths – start by giving some credence to your competitor. This not only shows that you’re well-informed but also builds trust with the prospect.
2. Reframe the Competitor’s Weaknesses – subtly highlight areas where the competitor may fall short, specifically in a way that connects to your product’s strengths.
3. Emphasize Your Unique Value Proposition – clearly outline what sets your product apart, focusing on value propositions highly relevant to the customer’s needs.

Ask a Leading Question – Finish with a question that highlights your product’s strengths and guides the conversation towards your unique benefits.

What Are Indirect Competitors?

Indirect competitors are businesses, products, or services that solve the same core problem as you but in a completely different way and often within a different category. While they might not look like your direct competition, they’re still an alternative that your buyers consider when trying to meet their needs.

Key Characteristics

Indirect competitors might not be in your category—or even your industry—but they still solve the same essential problem your buyers face. Here’s what sets them apart:

• They solve the same problem differently – If you’re a project management tool, they might be a consulting firm helping teams get organized.
• Their business model is different – while you’re selling software subscriptions, they might offer one-time purchases or professional services.
• Their features don’t match yours – because they take a different approach, traditional feature comparisons often don’t make sense.
• Their impact can vary. Sometimes they barely register in your deals; other times, they swoop in and grab the win when you least expect it.

Indirect competitors can be tricky to handle because they’re so different. But if you can clearly explain why your approach is the best fit for your target customer’s specific situation, you can turn these differences into advantages.

Examples of Indirect Competitors

If you interview your buyer, you’ll be surprised how many indirect competitors they actually evaluate you against. Here are a few examples to get the wheels turning.

• Ice baths vs. meditation classes
• HubSpot vs. WordPress
• Notion vs. Google Workspace

Ice Baths vs. Meditation Apps

This example of indirect competitors came from none other than FletchPMM’s Anthony Pierri in a recent Marchitect episode on positioning and messaging. 

Wait, so how do they compete with one another exactly?! Both are activities an individual could do to improve mindfulness and well-being. Although they are drastically different activities, there is an overlap in their benefits that might cause a buyer to pursue either option.

While one has you freezing your butt off and the other has you sitting quietly with your thoughts, they’re both competing for that “I need to destress” budget.

Listen to Pierri’s full breakdown below 👇

Notion vs. Google Workspace

The project management category has blown up in recent years. However, I’d hazard a guess and say that many (if not all) still have to compete with an indirect competitor in Google workspace.

Although Notion specializes in organizing teams and tasks, many ‘status quo’ buyers use a compilation of Google tools like Drive, Docs, Sheets, and Calendar to achieve the same goal.

In this case, Notion has to compete against the ‘old way’ of getting work done to unseat their indirect competitor.

HubSpot vs. WordPress

Here’s where category lines get blurry. When you’re a company as large as HubSpot, you have hundreds of indirect competitors across your product suite.

Now, their biggest direct competitors are other ‘all-in-one’ CRMs. However, HubSpot would compete with WordPress when it comes to publishing content and optimizing your website for SEO.

Even though WordPress isn’t a direct CRM competitor, it’s still grabbing potential HubSpot budget when companies are figuring out their website and content strategyIt’s a perfect example of how indirect competition can sneak up on you in specific product areas, even if you’re not competing across your entire platform.

Tactics to Handle Indirect Competitors

Let’s be real – dealing with indirect competitors isn’t as straightforward as pulling up a feature comparison chart. Your game plan needs to be different. Here are three proven tactics that’ll help you win these tricky battles:

1. Own Your Lane: Specialist Vs. All-In-One

The biggest difference between indirect competitors typically comes down to a larger business having an ‘all-in-one’ solution and a smaller business specializing in one specific subset within that suite.

If you’re the specialist? Own it. Lean hard into being purpose-built for your specific use case. Sure, Google Sheets can do project management, but you were built from the ground up just for that. Your entire product screams “this is literally all we think about.” 

If you’re the big fish? Highlight the benefits of having all your solutions “talk with one another.” Yeah, buyers could cobble together five different tools, or they could have one solution where everything just… works. Plus, you’ve got the “one bill, one vendor” angle that procurement folks love.

2. Educate and Position Towards Your Activity

Sometimes you’re not just selling your product – you’re selling an entire way of doing things. Take the ice bath vs. meditation example above. Before you can sell someone on your specific solution, you might need to convince them why your entire approach makes sense.

This means your marketing and sales need to start with education. 

Why should someone consider adopting your category’s approach in the first place? What are the bigger-picture benefits that make your entire category the right choice? Once they buy into that, then you can talk about why your specific solution is the best way to get those benefits. Remember – with indirect competitors you’re competing on entirely different philosophies of solving the problem. Own that difference.

3. Address the Status Quo Head-On

Indirect competitors often represent the “old way” of doing things. Your job is to make the cost of not changing crystal clear.

If you’re selling a dedicated project management tool, you might say: “Look, spreadsheets are great – we all use them. But when projects get complex, things fall through the cracks. What’s the cost of a missed deadline? What happens when key updates don’t reach the right people? That’s the real comparison we should be making.”

The key is shifting the conversation from product vs. product to impact vs. impact. Because with indirect competitors, that’s where the real battle is.

Direct vs. Indirect Competition: A Final Comparison

Let’s break down exactly how these two types of competition stack up against each other, side by side 👇

Stay Sharp Across Your Competitive Landscape

Not all competitors are made equal. But if they’re taking revenue from you, then they equally need your attention. 

If you want to give yourself an unfair advantage then I’ve got two things for you:

If you want to give yourself an unfair advantage then I’ve got two things for you:

First, subscribe to our Coffee & Compete newsletter. Every other week we provide tactical tips on nailing a competitive strategy and breakdown the best examples in the wild so that you can compete more effectively.

Second, check out the nine steps you can take to launch a competitive intelligence program within your business below 👇