ChickenDinner

Account Executive

How do I box out my competitors?

I sell a rather boutique solution that rarely beats our competitors price, but often in quality. How do I talk to my prospects about competitors. Sometimes I've sent side-by-side comparisons in emails, sometimes i've complimented my competitors. How do I box out my competitors when talking to prospects?

📈 Closing

☁️ Software Tech

🙅‍♀️ Objections

22 comments

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braintank

Politicker

Enterprise Account Executive

Find a unique and defensible differentiator for your product and make it part of the prospects minimum required capabilities.

ChickenDinner

Politicker

Account Executive

ok, what do you mean by defensible?

braintank

Politicker

Enterprise Account Executive

These should help

https://www.forcemanagement.com/seller-blog/articulating-differentiation-5-ways-to-trap-the-competition

https://www.forcemanagement.com/blog/how-to-use-differentiators-to-influence-the-sales-process

ChickenDinner

Politicker

Account Executive

thanks!

paddy

WR Officer

Director of Business Development

Honestly, just find their weaknesses and absolutely shit on them. Don't listen to the "well shitting on your competitor isn't a good idea because blah blah blah".
Fuck that. This is war. Fling your shit at them from a mile away my sweet little nipple cranberry cupcake.

UrAssIsSaaS

Arsonist

SaaS Eater

Anyone that thinks this is wrong has never sold a thing in their life.

braintank

Politicker

Enterprise Account Executive

I usually temper it a bit with "They're a great company, but here's why all of their clients are leaving them for us..."

UrAssIsSaaS

Arsonist

SaaS Eater

Shhhhh your giving away all of Paddys secrets. There are always real nuggets in there, you just gotta pull em out.

paddy

WR Officer

Director of Business Development

No! Why on earth would you compliment them?? Might as well just let them fuck your wife in front of you

funcoupons

WR Officer

👑

I say “if you sign with x you’re a fucking coward and you will never get top shelf pussy like me.” Works every time.

braintank

Politicker

Enterprise Account Executive

I mean, Enron was a great company too.

But I like your advice.

Can change to "Yes I acknowledge they exist, but..."

Or is that still giving them too much?

paddy

WR Officer

Director of Business Development

Sure. Either take the path of acknolwedging they exist and pounding them harder than I pounded @funcoupons in Cabo in '95, or pretend like you've never heard of them

Filth

Politicker

Live Filthy or Die Clean

Look out @paddy your illegitimate love/Kahlua mistake is going to find you from this post.

CuriousFox

WR Officer

🦊

There's got to be something that sets you apart.

braintank

Politicker

Enterprise Account Executive

You'd be surprised ;)

funcoupons

WR Officer

👑

I suggest homicide

RealPatrickBateman

Politicker

🔪Amateur Butcher🔪

THIS IS THE WAYYYYYYYYYY

Sunbunny31

Politicker

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

Always always always have your differentiation in mind when speaking with a customer. You may not even need to mention your competition by name when you can separate your solution effectively (or you can sneer "unlike the competition..." if you must). But you absolutely need to know, and let your customers know, what makes your product/solution/company/services better than anybody else's.

TreTime

Catalyst

Account Executive

As most everyone commented. It's all about framing. You have to frame the conversations around your differentiation. Make the buyer criteria involve your differentiation. Prop it with testimonials, industry knowledge, as @paddy said - if you know they are also talking to competitors - you have to call out the deficiencies in their products.

The key is to not vomit it all out at once.

TennisandSales

Politicker

Head Of Sales

1. you have to give them a really good buying experience. Dont be shady on pricing, dont make them jump through hoops, ect.

2. find out what the customer has as their #1 need. Then you need to explain why you do that better than your competitor.

if you cant do it better, than you might not be the best option so make sure you understand their needs 100%

ego

Politicker

Bartender

Be sexier than their reps. Halo effect never fails

Pachacuti

Politicker

They call me Daddy, Sales Daddy

That's a great question. And hard to answer.

I have gone completely negative on competitors with both positive and negative results - it depends on your audience.

I have also tried to take the high road and talk just about my widget's positive aspects - also with both positive and negative results.

I like side-by-side feature comparisons to determine best bang for my buck, but that's me personally.

In a presentation I like to have 3-4 differentiators and then do discovery around their needs. So at the end of the day I can say "you said these 2-3 things are important to you. We do <x,y,&z> better than anyone else".

Hope that helps.

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