Sales Information |
My Competitor Has a Better Product
The topic of this issue's article is a response to a question submitted by one of my newsletter readers. QUESTION - "At the moment, my competitor's have a far better product/deal, due to circumstances out of my control. However, customers go to the competitor and then come to me to compare. How do I go about convincing the customer that our service/product is better even though on paper it isn't???" ANSWER - Thanks for the question. I'm going to answer this to the extent that I can without knowing what it is that you or your competitor sell. I believe that this is a common experience for many of us in sales. Customers use us for free for all kinds of freebies - information, demos, test drive's, consulting, etc. Sure, it is good to give away something free to expose people to your offering (my newsletter is an example of this). This has gone way too far however, and it's our fault in the sales profession. We have been bludgeoned into thinking that we must do whatever it is that the customer asks of us. That we should jump through hoops like trick dogs, if that gets us just a little bit closer to *possibly* getting a sale. Freebies should be used as a marketing tool. The purpose of freebies is to generate a lead. And that's where the free giveaways should end. Once you have the lead, and are able to engage the customer in live conversation, the marketing ends and the selling begins. Successful selling is an exchange of value for value. It has always been this way since people traded grains and cloth for chickens and pigs. Today as sales professionals we are "representing" a company and its products. This is why we are called "sales representatives". We act as the agent, representing our company in the trade, representing our company in the exchange of value for value. As sales reps, we offer significant value to our prospective customers. Yes our products have value, but I am not talking about that. The value that we offer is our knowledge and our time. We know a lot about our products, about our industry, about future trends in our marketplace, about our competition, and many other things. We sell our products every day. Our customers (most of them at least) do not buy these products every day. So our knowledge has value. If you don't believe this to be true, then you either need to think about this a little more, or you work in an industry that is about to get disintermediated by ecommerce. So what should you do? Respect your value as a salesperson. Get commitments from your prospects. Get a commitment - Qualify them first for pains/wants, budget, and decision capability, Then before presenting details about your product. Get a commitment to make a definitive decision upon completion of your presentation or the proof step of your sales cycle. For this to work, you must have asked really good questions to elicit the important pains/wants that are driving the sale. You must know that they have the money to buy it. And you must be presenting to the decision-maker. You only have so much time in a day, so use it well. If you chase every deal that comes your way, you are losing real sales that you could have gone out and looked for. Break any of these rules, and you are simply rolling the dice. (Yeah I know, this works for some people - but you'll never make it really big in sales winging it this way). Notice that what I outlined above is the reverse order of the way many salespeople have learned to sell. The key thing that I am telling you to do here, is to present AFTER you have qualified the prospect and AFTER you have a commitment to make a decision. If you have a long sales cycles involving multiple levels of decision-making, you can use this same approach. Instead of getting a commitment for a decision up-front, you can get a commitment to be taken to the appropriate next step. That could be a meeting with a higher-level decision-maker, or it could be earning the right to give a presentation to a more influential audience. I call this "chaining commitments". This is the best solution. By getting commitments, you will stop wasting time with the people who aren't serious about you. By asking good questions up-front (a topic for another newsletter), you may uncover something that your competitor missed, giving you a chance to change the rules of the sale set early on by your competitor's getting there first. If your product isn't better, I don't believe that you can persuade or convince someone that it is. Most people aren't stupid. They will figure out eventually that you are trying to pull one over on them, if they don't figure that out while you are actually trying to do it to them. Lastly, even with the most competitive products, the number two product usually has some advantages over the number one product. Determine these advantages, and focus your selling efforts on the prospects who want such benefits. Create questions designed to uncover the pains/wants that would cause someone to want such benefits. Follow the process above of questions and commitments first, presentations last, and you'll find yourself making money even when you aren't selling for the number one company. © 1999-2004 Shamus Brown, All Rights Reserved. Shamus Brown is a Professional Sales Coach and former high-tech sales pro who began his career selling for IBM. Shamus has written more than 50 articles on selling and is the creator of the popular Persuasive Selling Skills CD Audio Program. You can read more of Shamus Brown's sales tips at http://Sales-Tips.industrialEGO.com/ and you can learn more about his persuasive sales skills training at http://www.Persuasive-Sales-Skills.com/
MORE RESOURCES: Unable to open RSS Feed $XMLfilename with error HTTP ERROR: 404, exiting |
RELATED ARTICLES
What Successful Sellers Know - Others Dont ... The Subtle Art of Closing Ask any salesperson, "At what point in the selling process does the 'Close' take place?" Eight out of ten will answer, "at the End". To be fair, they are not totally incorrect but they are, nevertheless, more wrong than right proving in principle and in practice, Perado's Law: Twenty percent of the sales force make eighty percent of the sales and profitability. How to Eliminate Objections to Price Have you ever stepped your way through the sales processonly to be disappointed by your prospect's objection toyour price?This situation unfolds all too regularly for many smallbusiness owners.The other day I was talking to Joan who was lamenting how she'd spent a ton of time developing a relationship with a new prospect, but in the end wasn't able to make the sale. Selling Commodities "How do you create a perceived value to differentiate yourself from the competition, when you are both selling a commodity?" That's a question I'm often asked in my seminars. It uncovers a problem that is spreading to almost every industry. Do You Want to Know the 8 Tips to Selling More Products? So often sales men and woman are the very people that prevent themselves from obtaining additional sales and increasing their commissions. It doesn't matter if it's counter sales or door-to-door. Where to Find Mannequins for Sale Any time a clothing store opens or expands, they must buy mannequins. There are many different places to find a mannequin for sale, including the Internet, companies that mass produce mannequins, and businesses that make unique mannequins one at a time. How to Make Sure You Sell More! Make sure you target women. It's true for almost anything you are selling. How Improve Conversion Rates Do you know your conversion rates? Conversion rate is the number of visitors to your site that take the desired action against the total number of visitors in a particular period or time. Research has shown that 60% of websites do not know their conversion rates. What Should I Charge? People ask me, "What should I charge?"I say, "Ask your clients."If they are respectable professionals you want as clients, they will be honest with you and give you a fair price based on their experience, their need, and their ability to pay. Give Up the Need to Sell Most business people will tell you that selling is not their favorite activity. Let's explore a way to look at the process of sales a bit more favorably. Going Global: Communication Across Mental Boundaries A completed communication consists of a sender and a receiver. If there is just a sender - like in a pitch, or a lecture, or a commercial, or advertisement, or even a newsletter - it's not a communication, but an assertion, or a monologue, or an opinion. Turn Your Wisdom Into a Workshop The Technical Revolution has done a lot for us -- we merely have to pick up a phone or send an email to conduct business. Yet, there still is no substitute for live, personal appearances when you want your teaching to count, and that's why I love workshops. Using Emotion for Persuasion The other day, I received the last issue of a business magazine before my subscription runs out. Now, I like this magazine, but I'm swamped with reading matter so I won't renew. Youve Got a Great Business, but Nobody Cares! I would like to share a disturbing little secret with you. Almost 70% of the people you do face-to-face business, with will never speak to you again!It's not that they didn't like you or get value from your services, but they just don't care. Before They buy What You Say - 10 Steps To Selling Yourself You are the productWe're all in the selling business whether we like it or not.It doesn't matter whether you're a lawyer or an accountant,a manager or a politician, an engineer or a doctor. Female Mannequins: An Overview Female mannequins are very common in clothing stores. They are often found throughout the store, from the front window where they display the store's latest and greatest fashions, to all other sections that featuring women's clothing. Mortgage vs. Real Estate Lead Generation It is fairly common for real estate companies and mortgage brokers to use leads. There is a difference between mortgage lead generation and real estate generation. Picture Yourself a Winner In the work place, the amount of good things that happen to a person during the day far out number the amount of bad things that happen, so why do we spend so much time stressing over the bad things when we should be smiling about the good things.One reason being, when something bad happens, such as being berated by a customer, it shakes us up a little bit, maybe our pride has been touched up a little. A Little Something Special Goes a Long Way Keeping the 80/20 rule in mind; that is that 80% of your business comes from 20% of your client base, there are a lot of missed opportunities to keep your clients coming back again and again and yet again. Having worked six years in the hospitality industry, particularly the hotel business, I have found the key to success and I would like to share it with you. A Simple Truth - Authentic Sales Tip A Simple TruthDo you have the right stuff?Are you consistent in your business?Do you build relationships easily?Are you approachable?I'm writing this E-letter aboard American Airlines flight # 2005from Atlanta to Miami, and then on to my final destination Tampa International Airport.For the last three days I've been attending the National Speakers Association annual convention. Lead Companies, Eight Features To Consider So now the time has come to invest in Lead companies, but how do you know which one is the right one for you?When I was a new loan officer, finding a lead company was not easy, I can remember logging onto Yahoo, typing in the key word "mortgage leads" and being bombarded with links leading me in the direction of lead companies all claiming to have the best leads and the best deal for me!But what was the best deal for me? That all depended on what I was looking for, so taking my time, I began to right down exactly what it was I was looking for, did I want refi's, purchases, or both. Did I want leads from several states or just one, how much could I afford? Etc. |
home | site map | contact us |