There is no mystery in going after competitive keywords, they just require more time (for authority to develop), more content (to reinforce relevance) and more link diversity (to create the right link profile) for success.
1) Perform a search query with the keywords ?in quotes?. This is a quick way to assess the benchmark of exact match (how many sites are competing for the term).
2) Perform an allinanchor check allinanchordomainname.com , if it matches up, then you know that the exact match is fairly accurate in determining the barrier to entry.
3) Find the top 3 sites and cross reference their age, back links and number of respective pages on the subject (SEO Quake is perfect for analysis).
If you see a page ranking for the phrase, other than the home page, then check the number of links pointing at it externally. Then analyze those links (with SEO quake) to see if they have authority. Most sites for moderately competitive phrases are only augmented by a handful of external links. Then it is merely a metric of quality, relevance and timing to outrank their page.