If You Have to Knock Someone Down to Build Yourself Up...You Might Want to Remodel Your Attitude!
Unfortunately we see this too often in our personal and professional lives... and of course, it really rears its ugly head during an election year. Friends will often pass along negative gossip about their "friends". Politicians pull out all the stops to show what their opponent is doing wrong or to dig up "dirt" on them.
And, we see it everyday in negative advertising about a competitor's product.
We're all selling something, aren't we... our product, our services, and ourselves. But if that's your marketing line, you might want to revisit your plan.
Last year I referred a contractor to a friend whose house needed extensive work. They had major smoke and water damage and were getting bids from contractors. During the walk through, Mr. Contractor pointed out how their floor (which had just been installed) was poorly done and made several derogatory statements about the quality of the work. He continued to do the same in the other areas of the house... making sure to point out the poor workmanship that had been done.
I spoke to my friend after the meeting and he said "No way would I want to work with this man! All he did was 
put down how it was built." What about your sales technique? When you are at your Listing Presentation or bidding on a Staging are you really selling yourself or knocking the other person down?
Sell Your assets.... not the negatives.
Sell Your strengths.... not your competitor's weaknesses.
Sell what You will do.... not what your competitive won't do.
Sell what you have done.... not what they didn't.
