A Senior Partner at a Big 5 consultancy I worked for told a good story. He was travelling in First Class on GNER from Newcastle to London to pitch for a substantial piece of business. The train was relatively busy and a group of three others sat beside him. He was snoozing slightly but suddenly switched on when he heard his new companions talking. They were from another Big 5 company travelling to London to deliver their pitch to the same client. He kept quiet and pretented to be asleep but took in everything they were saying.

Later that day when he was at the client site waiting for his turn the other party were getting ready to leave. When they saw him he look on their faces said it all. In the intervening period he had been able to adapt his pitch to counter and better some of the arguments being put by his competitor.

It was a good lesson.