When two of your customers are rivals
Testimonials From Customers Who Are Competitors
Sell to one industry for long enough and your customer list starts to look like a map of rivals. Putting two of them side by side on your homepage can flatter both, or make one feel you are leaking their playbook to the other. Answer four questions below to choose how to show them.
- Four questions about the rivalry and the quotes
- A recommended way to show both, or neither
- What to tell each customer before you publish
The problem, solved
Rival customers on one website
Most rivals do not mind sharing a page. The trouble starts when one of them feels exposed, outranked or used.
Situation 1 of 5
Our quote reveals how they beat rivals
A testimonial that says "we cut quote times in half" tells the other customer exactly which edge you gave their competitor.
How StoryProof solves it
Approval comes first for everything submitted, so a quote that gives away a method can stay unpublished while you ask the customer to say it more generally.
Situation 2 of 5
One rival gets the bigger spot
Put one firm in the hero and the other in a footer carousel, and the second one notices.
How StoryProof solves it
You choose which approved testimonials appear in each widget, so rivals can sit in the same layout at the same size, or on different pages entirely.
Situation 3 of 5
They sell into different regions anyway
Two rivals in name may never meet a buyer in common. Separating them by audience removes the question.
How StoryProof solves it
Tag each testimonial by region or segment, then build one widget per audience. How many widgets you get depends on your plan.
Situation 4 of 5
Everyone ends up on the same wall
A hosted page of every approved testimonial is useful for prospects, and it is where rivals are most likely to find each other.
How StoryProof solves it
The Wall of Love is a hosted page of your approved testimonials, so treat approval as the moment both rivals may meet there, and settle the attribution with each customer before you approve.
Situation 5 of 5
A named quote feels too risky
Some customers will praise you happily but not under their company name while a rival is a click away.
How StoryProof solves it
They can answer through the same link by text, audio or video, and you can agree a role and industry attribution before it goes live.
Decision helper
Can these two share a page?
Answer for the pair of rival customers you are thinking about. Your contracts and what each customer tells you come first.
Your answers are scored in your browser. Nothing is stored or sent.
What to tell each rival customer
A short, honest note before publishing avoids the awkward call after.
In StoryProof
Set it up in StoryProof
- 1
Hold every rival quote for review
Submissions wait for approval, so check each one for anything the other customer could use.
- 2
Tag by segment and by rival group
Add a region or segment tag, plus a tag marking customers that compete, so nobody places them together by accident.
- 3
Build widgets per audience
Choose which approved testimonials go in each widget. Separate rivals by page where the helper said so.
- 4
Remember the Wall of Love
The hosted wall is a page of your approved testimonials. If a rival asked for distance, agree a descriptor attribution before approving, or wait.
What happens next: Look at the rival tag whenever a customer churns or merges. A firm that left may now be a reason to rethink where its rival appears.
Before you start
Judgement the tool cannot make
StoryProof does not know who competes
The rival tag is yours to keep. There is no automatic detection of competing customers.
Contracts decide first
Exclusivity, confidentiality and publicity clauses can rule out options before any helper does. Read them, or ask whoever owns them.
Description can still identify
In a small market, "a regional distributor in the north" may be one company. Check the description with the customer.
Equal placement is not equal results
Even at the same size, one quote may read stronger. That is fair if both said what they said, but expect the question.
FAQ
Questions people ask
Short answers to what usually comes up next.
Do I need permission to show two rival customers on one page?
You need each customer's agreement to use their testimonial. Whether that covers appearing beside a competitor is worth asking outright when they compete head to head.
Will customers leave if they see their competitor on my site?
Most B2B buyers expect a vendor to serve their whole industry. The risk is in specifics: a quote revealing a method, or one rival getting much more prominence.
Can I mention that we work with their competitor when asking?
Say that you work with others in their market without naming them, unless those firms are already public references.
Is this the same as a testimonial that names a competitor?
No. That page covers a quote that names a company you compete with. This one is about two of your customers who compete with each other.
Still have a question? Ask the StoryProof team or book a demo.
Show every customer fairly
Tag rival customers, place them by audience and approve every quote before it goes public.
Last updated 2026-11-11.