Building a sales plan: Competition – Taking the high road

Your sales rep is in a groove. They have a hot prospect, actively interested in your solution, asking questions that scream “SALE”. They pick up the phone or walk into their office and WHAM, the prospect has questions that can only be planted by the competition. Their competitor, another sales rep touting the superiority of their solution, is busily trying to undermine the efforts of your rep. The instinctive reaction, and one that all too many of us engage in, is to start bashing the competition. This manner of handling the competition tends to wage a competitive struggle that slows down the sales process as the prospect tries to decide which is the lesser of two evils.

If your team works the sales process properly, and from the beginning expects competition to enter the arena before they close the deal, it is easy to avoid these situations. As coaches, it is our job to prepare our team for any situation they may face, while simultaneously giving them the tools to close sales quickly and efficiently. If your rep is prepared, they have:

1. The ability to talk about the unique offerings or variables associated with your solution.

2. Can demonstrate how vital these unique features or benefits are vital to the prospect’s needs.

3. Can take the high road by not pointing to the flaws in the competition.

By doing so, the competitors that try and attack your product look like politicians slinging mud.

So how do we get there? We have to gather data, and back it up with customers. Here are the things that can help you win most competitive situations:

1. As many unique characteristics of your product, service, company, people, that can address different value or pain points. If you are the best priced product, it does not speak to having the fastest or strongest solution. If you are the strongest, it does not help in a budgetary situation. Make sure you can tailor each data point to your prospects particular needs. Go to engineering, R&D, product marketing, and anyone else who is busily trying to make your solution better. Learn from them why they work for your company, what they take pride in. These are usually the value points that make them proud of what they do. These things should be what help sell your product.

2. Get customers to speak to these particular variables. If you are in a competitive battle, nothing helps more that having a current customer back you up. If you have won a competitive deal, or even better, have converted a customer form a particular competitor; get them in front of your prospect. Yes, you should take the high road, but there is nothing wrong with one of your clients talking about their problems with a competitive solution.

3. Train your team to start presenting the uniqueness of your product from the beginning. If you plant the right seeds early, and get the prospect attached to offerings only your company can offer, you will already have a leg up on the competition. Usually, when a particular need is met in the right way, anyone who cannot address this need is dismissed.

4. Keep in touch with all of your competitors advancements. There are always going to be improvements and advances in your competition’s solutions, and if you are winning deals in competitive situations, be prepared for them to catch up. Knowing what the other product does can help you strategize on how to counter.

When we start with the end in mind, and build value that cannot be denied, we win sales. Ensuring that our team members can overcome anything competition throws at them is a vital part of any sales plan.

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