My son is a soccer player, and a fairly decent one. He is in the midst of his High School career. There is much fretting over his perceived ranking within the troupe of guys. Constant worries over JV/ Varsity, starting, not starting. Our repeating pep talk is some version of the following:"you can only control one thing, and that is you". While, that nugget of wisdom that could easily be turned into an ironic demotivation poster, and may not be revalatory, it is 100% true. Hierarchy is very important to a High Schooler and apparently to humans, as well as people in the wine industry.
Wine Sales is much like High School. I am not referring to maturity levels, although, I may circle back another day, on that topic. I'm really pointing out that competition is hierarchical. Sales people, pay a lot of attention to who is doing what, who is buying what, who hangs out with whom. While all of these may impact your sales, ultimately, they are out of your control. This is VERY frustrating. The temptation is to talk shit about competitors, spread rumors, speak of motivations. DO NOT DO THIS. This is a deeply complex business. You will rarely find yourself in a situation where it is a tug-of-war. All of your anger and energy is just being diffused into the cosmos with no impact other than you releasing it. OR, the impact has a direct negative effect, where it primarily damages your reputation, which, once again, begins to slip out of your control. See-High School.
Imagine if Paul McCartney worried about people listening to things other than The Beatles. while they very well may be the greatest band in rock History, Sir Paul, can't possibly expect you, to only, consume their music. The reality is, the greatest band (arguably, happy to parking lot that conversation), only gets a portion of your attention and affection. Do the Beatles invalidate Radiohead?
As a wine rep, or supplier, or importer or distributor (or even a broker), you have a finite amount of things under your control. Spend 100% of your time spent worrying, worrying about those.