Your competitors aren't winning on product. They're winning on proximity.

I spoke with a frustrated revenue leader last month. 'We have the better product,' she said. 'We keep losing to a company with half our features.'

So I looked at the competitor's team on LinkedIn. Their AEs were active in the same communities as the buyers. Their CS lead was sharing real customer outcomes every week. Their CEO was commenting on industry threads.

They weren't closer geographically. They were closer relationally.

Proximity in 2026 is relevance, frequency and timing. Not territory.