Know Your Competition!

Good sales professionals know their competition, and they know the competitive landscape on every opportunity. Whenever I hear in a pipeline review that “they’re not looking at anyone else” I get very nervous! This opportunity will not make it into my forecast. The prospect is always evaluating your competition at this stage – NEVER believe anything else. This is America where capitalism reigns. Capitalism means choice. Your prospect is exercising choice, trust me!! It’s critical in every discovery call to begin to survey the competitive landscape and to begin to “lay traps” for your competitors at the table. This objective implies that you must know your competitors cold.

Before we start asking questions of the prospect about potential competitors, let’s refer to the “Competitor Matrix” embedded in this post. This is a great tool that allows you to assemble your competitor knowledge into one concise area and forms the basis of questions and traps you might put forth on your discovery call. Construct one of these for each competitor in your space.

List your company’s strengths and weaknesses across one axis. List “the bad guy’s” strengths and weaknesses along the other axis. You’ll want to do everything you can during the sales process to stay in the “Sweet Spot” quadrant and avoid those “Danger” quadrants. Don’t waste your time in the “Me Too” quadrant. If you can create or exploit a need of the prospect in the “Sweet Spot” quadrant, you’ll begin to pull away from your competitors.

How do you learn your competitor’s strengths and weaknesses? This can depend on how well your company supports you here and/or the help of your fellow sales pro’s. Of course, the internet is a potential source. But your best source is your prospect and client base. Ask them. Many times, of course, the prospect will put their arms up and say they are not able to provide competitor information. Don’t stop there. Ask questions like, “What else are you seeing in the marketplace…what do you like best about a particular vendor(s)…..what do you like least about a particular vendor(s)?” etc. You’ll learn quickly with experience that your competitors are at the table.

Now that you’ve completed your Competitor Matrix with knowledge of your competitor(s), here is an example on how we might exploit the “Sweet Spot” to gain an edge. Go back to an earlier post on “Product Knowledge” and discussion around “features, needs and benefits”. Then, look to the “Sweet Spot” where you’ll see a list of features about your company’s offering that the competitor cannot match. Formulate a question that would highlight a need for that feature and describe the benefit.

Let’s say you sell consulting services and unlike most other competitors, you can deliver on a fixed cost or time and materials basis. Your contractual and billing options are flexible. It’s your “Sweet Spot”. Your competitor(s) you have learned, are tied to a fixed cost model. You might ask questions during discovery such as these: “We appreciate the comfort you see around a fixed bid. Your costs are contained. But are you comfortable with the vendor’s assumptions behind the bid and their ability to deliver to those assumptions? If you could move between fixed bid and time and materials throughout the lifespan of the project to best ensure the minimum outlay from your company, would you see a benefit?” This is a classic example of “laying a trap” for your competitor.

Know your competitors and know them cold. Do you know the name and selling style of the competitor rep in your area?? A quick word on your competitor – never bash them. We have all been taught this, but it creeps up again and again in many sales calls. Once you start to bash, you are done. Lay those traps instead….build those Competitor Matrices and aim for the Sweet Spot in your discovery!