I noticed something interesting at the gym. The gym I go to is by no means a meat market. . . there are few mirrors, most of the patrons are really there to work out, not to see and be seen, the clientle, on the whole, seems to care about attaining or maintaining their health through exercise and that’s their agenda as far as being there goes.

However, I can’t help but notice that on occasion, I’ll be on the stationary bike or elliptical machine and someone will get on to the one next to me and I’ll pick up the pace a little. It’s not even really a conscious decision, but more my other-than-conscious wanting to show off a little. Maybe it’s a desire not to be ‘out done’.

Conversely, I have also noticed if I get on a machine next to someone, they’ll often do the same thing. Most people have a high desire for competition. This drive may or may not be something we embrace. I’m a competitive person who embraces it. As a sales person I loved challenging myself using other people’s records as benchmarks. I would constantly challenge myself to double or triple what the other sales people around me were doing.

You see competition in everyday life most intensely where there are limited resources. (Just look to the animal kingdom as they compete for water, food, mates.) Humans, especially in the United States, compete on economic bases. We all know about the survival of the fittest. . . It’s seldom about trade and cooperation. On some level or another, we compete–money, mates, parking spots. When we’re not out there competing ourselves, we sit around and watch others compete (sports, reality TV, beauty contests. . .)

In the case of my observation at the gym, it shows how competing can be incentive for self improvement. If I work out harder, show them what I’m made of, ride that bike to nowhere faster than they can, then I am only doing myself good (unless I get fanatical about it and pedal myself into an injury). Now, a drinking competition. . . that, obviously, is another story.

So how can this base instinct be used most effectively for selling our products or services? Well, we see it all the time. . . two gas stations across the street from each other with slightly different prices, the lower of the two deciding to take that much less for the product. I’m not suggesting you lower your prices by any means, but through framing, we can show ourselves, our products, our services, as the answer in the minds of our affluent prospects and clients. ‘I am by no means the cheapest, and in fact, I may be one of the more expensive realtors, but you really do get what you pay for.’

What is your relation to competition? Do you embrace it or shy away from it? And how can you begin to use it for persuasion purposes?