MitchandMurray

Business Development Director

Selling Against Competitors?

Fellow Sales Savages,

I had a good follow up sales meeting/experience this morning with a prospective client (I'm in B2B financial advisory sales) and wanted to pick everyone's brain.

This is the third and most likely final meeting I had with the company's decision maker before the finalist decision will be made. She narrowed her 3 top finalists down to my team and two other competitors. In speaking with her she mentioned the other two competitors and I immediately knew we were top of her list given our competitors optics and the strength of my firm, however the HR decision maker mentioned that the CEO favors the runner up because of a personal relationship.

I articulated why we were an overall better fit compared to the competitor from a pricing/service/performance standpoint, and made sure to avoid shit talking, but soon learned that the competitor was gaslighting the CEO about our firm and filling his head with facts that weren't true.

At this point do I bury the competitor and take the gloves off or should I continue to articulate my value proposition without trashing the competition? I've made it a practice to never put down competition and speak to facts, but clearly not everyone does this... curious to hear what everyone's personal takes are regarding these competitive situations.

Do you bash your competion?

Attached poll

Yes - whatever it takes to get the deal No - I avoid this and stick to my guns

*Voting in this poll no longer yields commission.

🤷‍♂ Poll

24

40 comments

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CuriousFox

WR Officer

21

🦊

Never bash your competition. It makes you look weak and people will not respect you or your company.

TheHypnotist

Executive

4

Sales Manager

I keep finding myself agreeing with stuff the fox writes.

CuriousFox

WR Officer

5

🦊

Happy to serve 🦊

InQ5WeTrust

Arsonist

3

No marketing, mayo isn't an MQL

The fox is wise

TheHypnotist

Executive

2

Sales Manager

His 17 years of experience shows ;)

InQ5WeTrust

Arsonist

2

No marketing, mayo isn't an MQL

Her*

TheHypnotist

Executive

1

Sales Manager

ah, a Vixen! No offence intended, I can't tell on here :P

CuriousFox

WR Officer

1

🦊

None taken! 🤣🦊

InQ5WeTrust

Arsonist

4

No marketing, mayo isn't an MQL

Reps also get stuck too often on focusing on the competition instead of the prospect. The flaws you point out may not apply to them.

Listen more chat shit about other people less.

RealPatrickBateman

Politicker

1

🔪Amateur Butcher🔪

Took the words right out of my mouth 🚀

jefe

Arsonist

1

🍁

Definitely this.

We always take the 'high road'

FamilyTruckster

Politicker

10

Exec Director, Major Accounts

I compliment the competition on what they do well. Build credibility.

Also, by highlighting what YOU do well, it oftentimes highlights what they do poorly.

BmajoR

Arsonist

3

Account Executive

This is absolutely the way to go. I wish I could upvote this more.

TheNegotiator

Arsonist

0

VP of Sales

Go give someone a 70k base

BmajoR

Arsonist

2

Account Executive

I gave your mom a 70k base since dad never came back after he left for smokes.

TheNegotiator

Arsonist

1

VP of Sales

Dan why are you saying these awful things… my heart 😢

BmajoR

Arsonist

2

Account Executive

It builds character. You're gonna be alright, champ.

TheNegotiator

Arsonist

1

VP of Sales

You’re damn right. I am a champ. Thanks dad… I mean… Dan

ButWaitTheresMore

Politicker

1

Senior Sales Engineer

Big fan of this 100%! There's a reason their company exists and does well - it's just not the right reason for this prospect in particular to buy (read: every prospect)

1nbatopshotfan

Politicker

4

Sales

Don’t bash their weakness. Turn their perceived strength (outside of the personal relationship) into a chance to highlight your strengths. Anything that they may be good at, highlight, compliment it and then highlight what you do better/differently.

Diablo

Politicker

3

Sr. AE

I never bash my competitors, last thing I can do. Value prop is something I play around along with how we can achieve X better, faster, with ease etc. doesn't mean comps are bad.

hh456

Celebrated Contributor

3

sales

I’ve never seen a sale against a competitor work well. It always looks bad.

UrAssIsSaaS

Arsonist

2

SaaS Eater

Never a fan of purely bashing their competition but any skilled salesperson is going to highlight your products strengths compared to competition.

To take it to the next lever highlight the competitions strengths when they are in areas that are not important to the prospect and then highlight yours where they care the most. Builds credibility and allows you to set yourself apart.

Sunbunny31

Politicker

1

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

I'll never bash the competition, but I will point out how my solution/company differs and where we put distance between ourselves and the competition. You can tell people why you're better without denigrating the other companies.

barney2021

Tycoon

1

Account Executive

Subtle hints into my competitions pain points, by telling them the advantages of the points that we excel in, is the best way

HumanSalesman

Good Citizen

1

Sr AE

Never bash the competition. An honest appraisal of pros and cons of competitors is great though. Shows you're transparent and honest and understand your industry. That being said, bonus points if the pros don't apply to the particular prospect or if the cons would be particularly painful.

ragnarlothbrok

Politicker

1

Key account manager

I wouldn't, its a huge red flag. If your competition are doing that about your company, hopefully your customer will note this too. If they are bashing you they are obviously threatened by you too, so theres a compliment to be had in there somewhere.

Avon

Politicker

1

Senior Account Executive

“I don’t ever like to badmouth the competition, but here are some ways we’re different”

RandyMoss

Politicker

1

Account Executive

If you have to bash someone else's product to try and make yours look good, what does that say about your product?

BmajoR

Arsonist

1

Account Executive

If you have to bash a competitor to win, you're bad at sales.

CuriousFox

WR Officer

0

🦊

100% bad, terrible, the wooooorrrrrrsssssstttttt......

alecabral

Arsonist

1

Director - Digital Sales Transformation

One of the things that were taught to me as a "cardinal" rule I guess, was to never do exactly that. There are many reasons to not badmouth your competitors, but the main one for me is that I believe it affects my credibility greatly. What kind of am I, and moreover, what kind of professional am I if in order to get a deal done I need to throw crap at others that are trying to the same I am doing? Also...today that can be your competitor, but tomorrow that could be your next employer. Double the reason NOT to drop shit on them.

Beans

Big Shot

1

Enterprise Account Executive

Ask them what they like about their current vendor (if it's a competitor) and they'll slowly reveal flaws, and it'll resonate more since it seems as if they've discovered this themselves.

dwightyouignorantsale

Politicker

0

Account Executive

Never ever bash competition. Sticking to the high road will generally resonate more with a prospect vs who won the shit talking competition. Address the items that were said about your company and move on.

beachNsales

Politicker

0

Sales Manager

Don't bash, give them credit on what they do well but highlight what sets your product apart for them. What do you do better?

Justatitle

Big Shot

0

Account Executive

In my experience talking negatively about competition shows desperation and weakness to the buyer and puts you in a bad light. I’ve never won a deal from being negative. You can certainly point out the flaws of competitors by saying “customer xyz that switched to us mentioned problem abc” it’s a positive spin on it.

WomenWantMeFishFearMe

Politicker

0

AM

2nd place bashes 1st. 1st never concerns itself with 2nd's opinions.

SalesPharaoh

Big Shot

0

Senior Account Executive

Actually, if you can do it in a gentlemanly way for example the way I put it with our nemesis is as follows
You know company X product is amazing and they have a huge team of developers putting all sorts of features out. But you can see is that 90% of their revenue comes from only 5 customers whom they are doing this for (it's a fact btw, I actually looked up their report) which is why we feel that we are better fit to you, we don't have the developer capacity to compete against this goliath but you also don't need all these features. In addition that a lot of SMEs (that's my story so it may not be applicable to you) end up leaving them because they are not a priority and you may contact them for reference if you wish. It's what makes our partnership more compatible. Feel free to think about your priorities and get back to me when you made up your mind.

3/5 of my closed deals this Q ending today are from this narrative.

TheHypnotist

Executive

0

Sales Manager

Not only do I not bash the competition, but if the customer mentions a competitor I'll say "yeah, good company." then I shut up and listen.

Flippinghubs

Opinionated

0

Account Executive

I try to stay out of the mud and take the high ground

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