Your product is definitely superior to your competitors and you understand the space and that is the reason why you have come up with this product in an already crowded market. Though you have innovated well, it is not disruptive innovation that is going to displace the competition. In this scenario, what strategy should you adopt towards your market development?

Should you look at expanding your market or should you look at displacing the incumbent?

You have to be creative here, and you should understand your competitor’s strategy over and above your product differentiator. Few pointers that would help you in choosing the strategy that would be appropriate for you:

1. If your product is not demonstratably superior to the incumbents, don’t look at displacing them.

2. When you are trying to displace your competition, the business case is already established. It is only the real benefits and cost savings that would get your foot in, and not just perceived benefits. Besides, there are costs associated with switching products for your customer and add to that user training, application downtime and the likes.

3. With better features than your competition, it should be fairly easier to address fresh markets or unserverd/under-served markets.

4. Ensure that you add customers from fresh markets. Use these success stories as references before addressing the incumbent market.