Who Are You Competing With?

It is easy to fall into the trap of comparing yourself to others. You see someone land a big account. Another person closes a deal in half the time. A competitor posts a flashy update on LinkedIn. And suddenly, you start to wonder: Am I doing enough? Am I good enough? Do I have what they have? But the truth is, those questions lead you away from what matters. The only competition that matters is the one staring back at you in the mirror. Great sales organizations don’t waste energy worrying about what others are doing. They focus on doing better than they did yesterday.

Basketball coach John Wooden said, “Don’t measure yourself by what you have accomplished, but by what you should have accomplished with your ability.” That speaks to the heart of this issue. In sales, your greatest responsibility isn’t to outshine others. It is to maximize your own potential. That means learning from your own numbers, your own experiences, your own process. It means tracking your progress, not someone else’s. And it means asking better questions, like: Am I improving? Am I making smarter decisions? Am I staying focused on what matters?

The danger of constant comparison is that it distorts your perspective. You only see part of someone else’s story. You don’t see the support behind their success, the timing of their opportunity, or the failures they’re not posting online. Meanwhile, you know everything about your own path. You know the obstacles, the hard work, and the progress. When you compare your full journey to someone else’s highlight reel, it’s no wonder you feel behind. But that feeling is often based on fiction, not fact. It’s a distraction. And in sales, distractions cost money.

Studies show that people who compare themselves to others regularly are more likely to feel anxious, stressed, and dissatisfied with their own achievements. A study from the Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics found that salespeople who ranked themselves against peers were more likely to underperform over time. Why? Because they focused on the wrong metrics. They chased someone else’s pace instead of setting their own. They let insecurity drive their decisions. And that rarely leads to consistent performance.

In contrast, sellers who focused on personal improvement showed better results. They weren’t distracted by what others had. They were too busy working on what they could control. They reviewed their calls. They refined their pitches. They asked for feedback and used it. They didn’t need outside pressure to push harder. They had internal drive. And that drive is what separates average salespeople from great ones.

As business thinker Peter Drucker said, “What gets measured gets managed.” When you measure your performance by your own standard you grow. Measure your own activity, your own goals, your own outcomes. This is something you can manage because it is personal. You can grow it. You can learn from it. But when you measure your performance by someone else’s results, you surrender control. You let them set the bar. And you risk chasing goals that don’t even fit your market, your skills, or your customers.

This is especially dangerous in outside sales, where every account is different. Every territory has its own dynamics. Every buyer has a unique set of needs, timelines, and decision-makers. What works for one seller in one industry may fall flat in another. That’s why comparing your book of business to someone else’s is a waste of time. Instead, the question should be: Am I making the most of the accounts I do have? Am I maximizing the opportunities already in front of me?

Here’s the truth. Opportunity isn’t evenly distributed, but effort is. Not everyone starts with the same resources. Not everyone gets the same leads. But everyone has the same ability to focus, prepare, and push forward. That’s what makes internal competition so powerful. It puts the focus back where it belongs, on effort, execution, and ownership. Those are the areas you can control. Those are the areas that lead to long-term success.

T. Harv Eker is a motivational speaker, author, and entrepreneur. He is best known for his book Secrets of the Millionaire Mind. He teaches principles of wealth and success. Eker’s work blends personal development with business strategy. He is recognized for his bold, no-nonsense style. His teachings focus on the idea that internal beliefs influence external results. This is in both life and business. He writes, “How you do anything is how you do everything.” This should hit home for sellers and sales teams. It’s not about outshining others. It is about building daily habits that elevate your own performance. It’s about showing up with consistency. It is about doing the little things with purpose. And treating every step of the process like it matters. When you follow through on your process, this is step toward success. When you take your follow-ups seriously, you make progress. When you prepare with intention and keep learning, you don’t hope to improve, you do it.

Too many sellers get caught up in scoreboard watching. They obsess over quotas, rankings, and revenue comparisons. But none of those numbers matter if you aren’t doing the work behind them. The top sellers aren’t only talented. They’re consistent. They treat each call with respect. Each conversation is a chance to learn, to listen, to lead. And they don’t waste time worrying about someone else’s leaderboard.

Competing with others inside your own team can quietly poison the culture. It encourages information hoarding, breeds resentment, and turns teammates into rivals. When reps start celebrating each other’s failures instead of each other’s wins, trust erodes. Morale dips. Collaboration disappears. You might see a few short-term victories, but the long-term cost is steep. In complex sales, where many people will influence the outcome of the deal, that kind of division isn’t only unhealthy. It is a recipe for missed opportunities and lost revenue.

Now contrast that with a culture built on self-competition. In that kind of environment, sellers support one another. They swap ideas, share wins, and learn from losses. And they do this together. No one’s trying to outshine the team; they’re trying to outgrow yesterday’s version of themselves. Progress becomes personal. And that shift changes everything. It fuels momentum, not rivalry. It builds a workplace where accountability is expected. It is one where support is offered freely, and resilience is second nature. That’s the kind of culture where both people and performance thrive.

There’s another danger in competing with others. It makes you reactive. If your competitor lowers their price, you panic. If they run a flashy campaign, you scramble to copy it. But great sales organizations don’t follow. They lead. They know their value. They define their message. They set their strategy based on what’s best for their market, their customers, and their team. It is not based on what someone else is doing. And that confidence comes from inward focus.

As Oprah Winfrey once said, “You can only run your own race.” That wisdom holds true in business. When you spend all your time watching someone else’s lane, you trip in your own. But when you keep your eyes forward, at your pace, and on your progress, you move with purpose. You gain ground. You build trust with your buyers because you’re not trying to impress them with comparisons. You’re trying to serve them with solutions.

Even in leadership, the best sales managers model this mindset. They don’t pit reps against each other. They challenge each rep to beat their own personal best. They review pipeline activity not to shame someone for falling behind, but to coach them on how to improve. They celebrate growth, not only the wins. And they remind the team that success is about direction, not perfection.

Research from the Harvard Business Review shows that sales teams that focus on learning goals instead of performance goals are more adaptable and more successful. Learning goals ask, “What can I improve?” Performance goals ask, “How do I beat them?” And in a changing market, the seller who learns faster wins more. The seller who competes only against others may never learn anything at all.

This mindset mirrors what athletes refer to as chasing a personal best. Runners don’t step onto the track to beat the competition. They strive to beat their own last time. Swimmers aren’t obsessed with the swimmer in the next lane. They’re focused on shaving off a fraction of a second. The sales profession works the same way. If you booked five meetings this week, push for six next week. If your close rate is 25%, aim for 30%. Growth comes from bettering yourself. It does not come from mimicking someone else.

There is a powerful freedom in adopting this mindset. When you stop competing with others, you start challenging your own complacency. You stop obsessing over how things look and start focusing on what actually works. You stop trying to be flawless and start striving to get better. That shift, from image to impact, from perfection to progress, transforms everything. Your confidence grows. Your conversations become sharper. Your close rates improve. Because when you’re driven by growth, not comparison, every effort moves you forward.

Of course, benchmarks will always exist. It’s important to track your numbers, understand market trends, and be aware of industry standards. But those metrics should serve as context, not as pressure. They are tools to help you spot opportunities and refine your goals. These are not rulers to measure your self-worth. Your real value isn’t in how you stack up to others. It’s in how consistently you show up. It is how much you grow. It is how effectively you deliver value where it counts, day in and day out.

Sales is hard enough without the weight of unnecessary comparison. The job already comes with pressure. It already demands resilience, creativity, and grit. So why add the burden of chasing someone else’s path? You have your own path, your own challenges, your own story. And your job is to make that story as strong, honest, and impactful as possible. As Theodore Roosevelt put it, “Comparison is the thief of joy.” In sales, it’s also the thief of focus, clarity, and performance. If you want to succeed, look inward. Ask better questions. Build better habits. Track your own progress. And define your own version of success.

Because in the end, your biggest competition isn’t the seller in the next office. It’s the excuses in your head. It’s the distractions on your screen. It’s the temptation to coast instead of improve. Beat that, and you’ll win far more than a trophy or a quota. You’ll win your buyer’s trust. You’ll win your own confidence. And you’ll build a career that’s built to last. And it is not because you copied someone else’s path, but because you committed to your own.

That’s what great sellers do. They focus on what they can control. They embrace the process. They chase their potential, not someone else’s shadow. And slowly but surely, they get better. They grow stronger. They move closer to mastery. Not by outpacing others, but by outgrowing themselves. Day after day. Call after call. Quarter after quarter. Because in this business, the grass isn’t greener on the other side. It’s greener where you water it.

My new book, Double Your Revenue, is now available on Amazon. If you like what you have read, please consider ordering a copy or two. You can always send one to a friend. Order a copy here: https://bit.ly/doubleyourrevenuebyCEFleming