looper1010

Solutions Specialist

Celebrated Contributor

How do you deal with LIARS from competition?

This is happening too often to be a fluke. It's typical for a prospect to talk to the same few competitors in my field. One, in particular, has been lying about my product straight up on multiple occasions. I've seen the fwd'ed emails from the competitor's sales team. They are aggressive and telling nefarious lies about my product (wrong pricing, incorrect info about our API, etc.).

Prospects are following up to double check but this is getting out of hand and very annoying. This has been flagged by management and they've reached out to said company about the misrepresentation but it falls on deaf ears. (No surprise there...)

I don't like bashing competitors (I don't even mention the lawsuits that people have filed against this company). What other alternatives are there to combat people who give sales a sleazy name...

(I'm currently working on getting testimonials and letting the prospects talk with clients to assure them that those things aren't true).

👑 Sales Strategy

😎 Sales Skills

😤 Conflict Resolution

17

26 comments

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CuriousFox

WR Officer

5

🦊

Some people are straight up dirty. You know what happens to dirty people? Karma.

I deal with similar shit. Dealers also like to sell my product less than what I quote. Nasty.

Rise above. Never talk shit about your competitors to clients. Only speak of your product and how your solution can solve their problem. This will make you stand out.

Send evidence of the bs to your management team and let their lawyers work it out behind the scenes. Stay clean, stay classy. 🦊

looper1010

Celebrated Contributor

2

Solutions Specialist

Agreed, just gotta wait for karma to catch up

Beasthouse

Opinionated

0

Corporate trainer

maybe you should be a lawyer i bet you would love to pull a harvey specter hahaha

DaveGreen

Arsonist

2

Head of Sales

Difficult one - I've never encountered this. But I'd do what you're already doing. Never talk bad about your competition.

In one of the companies I worked for, we regularly held smaller and local networking events where customers could come together and network over some drinks but we'd also invite a handful of prospects and 9 times out of 10 - we didn't have to sell them anymore as our customers did. If there were any doubts, seeing real people using the same software and having actual faces of the company there, made them disappear.
Difficult these days, but that might be something interesting to leverage in the future:)

looper1010

Celebrated Contributor

1

Solutions Specialist

That's a great event idea. Real life testimonials are the best!

Justatitle

Big Shot

2

Account Executive

We had this exact same thing with a competitor of ours. If it is documented there is juice in a cease and desist followed up by a potential lawsuit. Seems like you need to see if your management is willing to do that. As far as what you should do, keep that high ground because your going to win more from not bashing and being straightforward, and when you prove your competition wrong to the prospects you will have eroded any trust the prospect had in your competition. Karma buddy it does exist

looper1010

Celebrated Contributor

1

Solutions Specialist

Thanks! There's quite a few in upper management who's upset but the highest ranked doesn't seem to want to pursue this since it fell on deaf ears before. Looks like I'll have to wait for karma to catch up

Justatitle

Big Shot

0

Account Executive

It’s worth it to bring it up again and just ask if a cease and desist with evidence is worth it.

poweredbycaffeine

WR Lieutenant

2

☕️

If someone chooses my competitor based on a lie then I will let them go, and about 2 months later I will reach out and ask how implementation has gone. I'm fully aware that the feature they were told was superior does not work, or frankly does not exist, but they're locked into that annual contract and can't move. Is it painful for me to point that out? You bet your ass. However, I'm more likely to win in 10 months.

looper1010

Celebrated Contributor

1

Solutions Specialist

I like that, that's a great idea for a sequence for all prospects who went with competitors.

poweredbycaffeine

WR Lieutenant

2

☕️

The first deal I worked on solo as an AE went with a competitor because they lied about how we handled a specific security interface. I was livid but had to deal with it. Called them up in 3 months, based on when they said they needed to be launched, and wouldn't you know it--they weren't up yet! We could have been done in 6 weeks, they were looking at 20 at the earliest. They had to sleep in the bed they made for THREE YEARS, and eventually went with us (after I had left).

looper1010

Celebrated Contributor

0

Solutions Specialist

Heck yeah! I wish you had gotten the Op but glad they switched!

MaximumRaizer

Politicker

2

Sales Manager

Rise above. Never talk shit about your competitors to clients. Only speak of your product and how your solution can solve their problem. This will make you stand out.

Clashingsoulsspell

Politicker

2

ISR

Difficult one - I've never encountered this. But I'd do what you're already doing. Never talk bad about your competition.

CaneWolf

Politicker

1

Call me what you want, just sign the damn contract

You gotta call these things out. "Oh yeah, they say this stuff all of the time. It's not true but we're used to it by now." I also don't think it's competitor bashing to push back and say something like "I never bring this up unprompted but I want you to understand that their word isn't exactly good. They've been sued a number of times for false statements that led to customers making purchasing decisions."

Beasthouse

Opinionated

1

Corporate trainer

teach the prospect so much that they realise the other party is lying

looper1010

Celebrated Contributor

0

Solutions Specialist

I like this. But what if your prospect can't read? /s

Beasthouse

Opinionated

0

Corporate trainer

so funny thing this actually became a challenge for some of our European leads at an old company. we ended up using dub videos describing our emails visually with language-specific subtitles and it did great!

Beasthouse

Opinionated

1

Corporate trainer

hold a massive open house discussing the truth around the lies with out calling anyone out just simply educating the market place so they can see the bs and make better choices.

looper1010

Celebrated Contributor

1

Solutions Specialist

I would love to be in the same room with the liar and tear them apart!

Blackwargreymon

Politicker

1

MDR

teach the prospect so much that they realise the other party is lying

jamesjhunter

0

Sales Consultant

Never had to bash a competitor when they are outright lying, it usually catches them later when they overpromise and underdeliver. What I have done in the past is ask the prospect to ask about a certain “lie” and ask the competitor how it works or dig deeper. Usually the competition gets caught up and makes them look dumb as hell. You win in the end

RunDownTheStairs

Opinionated

0

Enterprise Account Executive

8 mile them. Get in front of it before they can get it from your competitor. "Mrs. Prospect, I'm going to guess you're talking to our competitor X. I'm not going to say anything bad about them.. but if I were, I'd say they're going to try to spread some FUD around on our product, so wanted to show you a few things to help you justify this when they bring it up in your next conversation with them"

MR.StretchISR

Politicker

0

ISR

Difficult one - I've never encountered this. But I'd do what you're already doing. Never talk bad about your competition.

Mr.Floaty

Politicker

0

BDR

Hell no. Hypotheticals can't pay my bills...so if the base didn't go up then you're not getting paid any more than what you were before unless you can attain the additional OTE number.

Cyberjarre

Politicker

0

BDR

Hell no. Hypotheticals can't pay my bills...so if the base didn't go up then you're not getting paid any more than what you were before unless you can attain the additional OTE number.

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