The entirety of this blog post was composed whilst jamming to this FIRE. Drake, Em, Nate Dogg and Britney all on the same track?! Enjoy.
Familiar sales rep scene:
You’re at your desk, brilliantly composing your finest cold email, when cha-ching!, your inbox explodes with an email from one of your prospects. It’s a forwarded message…from one of your competitors...
Your competitor's email to your prospect almost always reads something like this:
__________
Prospect,
It was great speaking with you today!!! (Multiple exclamations points … desperate much?)
Here is the info we discussed:
- Product Feature 1 (because Prospect was confused when it was originally shown)
- Product Feature 2 (because Prospect checked out after that)
- Bonus Product Feature (because Prospect ended the meeting before this magical feature was covered)
The price of these features is X. (because Prospect said “just send me the price”)
Let me know if you have any questions!!! (because Prospect didn’t ask any during the meeting).
Sincerely, Competitor Sales Rep
__________
Here’s the thing…while you are probably pumped to be getting all this juicy competitive info (those features!), your competitor has actually made your life much more difficult.
Your competitor has reduced the process to a list of checkboxes and prices, and your prospect is now simply fishing to see who can offer more features at a lower price.
This is a dangerous place for you to be. The commodity sale is an incredibly tough one to win…it’ll be a while before you put the down payment on that M6 convertible.
But, fear not. When handled properly, you can take advantage of your competitor’s blunders and win this deal. Here are three tips:
- Do NOT demean your competitor; do the opposite – Giving a slight nod to your competitor projects massive confidence, and will set you up to elevate (next bullet): Yep, Competitor Sales Rep is right, those features are pretty important.
- Elevate the conversation – Immediately go where your competitor likely didn’t – elevate the conversation to outcomes: I’ve worked with X company in the past, and they used similar features…they were super successful using them, and generated Y outcome.
- Pivot back to the Prospect – Take advantage of the fact that your competitor is focusing on their widget instead of the Prospect’s needs and goals: X company was trying to achieve Y, which is why they used that feature. What are you trying to achieve? Why? How are you going to measure success?
Had your competitor followed this approach, that email would have never hit your inbox. Seize the opportunity they just tossed your way and take control of this deal.
____________________________
