Bob Hooey, an author and global speaker once said “If You Are Not Taking Care Of Your Customer, Your Competitor Will.” Nowadays, almost every deal goes through a competitive bake-off whether vendors know it or not. Customers are always comparing multiple solutions with their incumbent products that they are already using. In order to close a sales deal, it’s important to uniquely differentiate with competitors and show value to customers.
When there exists a competition, the sales team should find the competitors, look at what the customer’s pain points are. Further, evaluate how it’s being resolved by the competitors. Keenly observe the primary and multiple competitors, what they offer and analyse how your product performs from theirs. Reinforce the same during POC planning and execution. The following are some of the strategies to approach competitive scenarios
Know your competitors
When your prospect asks about a competitor, you should be well aware of them and respond about their products. This will make your customers realize that your sales teams are well informed. Research on your strongest competitors and be updated about their product.
Explore their background, their services, pricing plans, their product features, and other information that is needed during a customer’s call. This information helps you to find out where your competitors lag behind and how you can make your value proposition to outrun the competition. However, stay mindful while highlighting your competitor’s disadvantages.
Find your customer’s expectation on competitor
Asking proper questions and answers will make it easier to sell your product against the competition. If you know what the customer knows, it is easier to pitch your product against the competition. The following are a few information that can be determined from the customer.
Establish price as an asset
Price perception is one of the significant factors of a customer’s buying process. Market researchers have undergone multiple research and predict that in buying decisions price is the driving force.
If your price is lower, emphasize on the product’s value and the money saved. But, if the price is higher, emphasize on the increased benefits and lower risk factors. Establish price as an asset where the product benefits outweighs the price so much that customers don’t mind about the product cost.
Leverage your brand reputation and success stories
Sales teams often use pricing to convince the prospects that their product is better than the competitor. While that may work sometimes, it’s not recommended to use this strategy every time. The prospects don’t usually make their buying decisions by relying on cost and discounts. If you keep offering discounts to improve competitive selling, you may end up compromising your product’s quality and overall revenue.
Your sales reps should try to leverage your brand image and success stories to grab the customer’s attention. Sales teams should talk passionately about your brand, your past achievements, etc. This way, you’ll give the prospects some reasons to believe in your brand and its capabilities.
Success is your go-to software if you’re planning to win more sales deals through competitive selling. Success helps you analyze every sales meeting, and mark your competitors’ products. It tracks how competitions are doing by implementing its unique metrics to highlight customers’ needs and expectations. Hence, you can easily guide your sales team in the right direction and convert more leads.
Photo by Hassan Pasha on Unsplash
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