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A sales lead is currently working with one of our competitors, and said they'd happily switch over, so long as we we could make the changes to handle things in the same way as our competitor is.

However, there is no absolutely no way to do that, and follow our industry's security standards. The data the customer wants to see (and currently can see), is just not allowed to be sent to them. Doing so would put both us and our customer in danger of huge fines.

How do we explain this situation to our lead?

Do we report our competitor?

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You should definitely tell the prospective customer. Unless people's lives are in danger I would not "report" a competitor based on the information you gave. Of course, there is not much to go on. But in general I would leave it alone except to explain it all clearly to your sales lead. Use it as a sales tool - if the competitor is that ignorant/risky then there are other things that could be a risk to their business. – TimJ♦ Oct 2 '12 at 18:14

2 Answers

up vote 4 down vote

Fundamentally, the fact that a competitor is not following industry standards is not your problem.

Personally, I would decline doing the change, explain the problem, and cite the relevant rules and penalties. Don't even reference the competitor, just explain why you won't do it.. because odds are the customer will forward that email directly to their sales/support reps at the competitor and/or their own attorney and ask for an explanation.

That's why you need to keep this about your choices and policies, not the competitor's.

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+1 good answer. Pretty much what I was thinking. – Steve Jones Apr 14 at 10:15
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The answer to that is based on the next two questions:

  • Can reporting your competitor backfire and harm you personally or your business?
  • That prospective client will probably end up hating you, can you afford it?

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