bobthebuilder profile picture
bobthebuilder profile picture

bobthebuilder

Director, Sales

Contributor
Member

Winning strategy against other players in a new category

We launched our product (compliance automation software) roughly 15 months ago and have two other players in this category - this is relatively a new category btw. While we've had success in customer acquisition (we did 2.5M ARR in 15 months) prospects are still unsure how to evaluate products in this space and do not see the differentiation during demos. For the prospect all these products look the same.


In that context, would love to hear some winning strategies we can use against competition.

👑 Sales Strategy
☁️ Software Tech
✍️ Sales advice
10

10 comments

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Diablo
Politicker
5
Sr. AE
Communication has to come from your side - prospects don’t know hence the company hire people like us. When you talk of differentiation- how your product is different fromother? Think carefully - it’s not always the feature/functionality but also other values associated with your product - great UI, easy to use, great outcome, extra ordinary reporting and collaboration etc.
Sunbunny31
Politicker
3
Sr Sales Executive 🐰
Yes! You have to guide them and educate them about the differences.
Maximas
Tycoon
0
Senior Sales Executive
Exactly!
jefe
Arsonist
3
🍁
You've gotta put on your professor's hat.
UserNotFound
Politicker
5
Account Executive
Sometimes you have to gently give the prospect their own grading rubric… I’ve been in this situation but with SMBs evaluating low-cost (sub $1,000/mo SaaS).

I always liked to include in my presentation a section calling out “things you may not have realized you’re looking for” and lined it out. Or you might Create a “versus card” to share with prospects that show what boxes you check and what your competitor checks (“other guys”).
LordOfWar
Tycoon
2
Blow it up
This is such a good way to let the prospect see the difference without stooping to the level of putting down your competitors.
TennisandSales
Politicker
3
Head Of Sales
then you have to hold their hands.

During the demo, at a point that you KNOW is key but prospects blow over, stop. Highlight what is different and why it is important.

I would suggest doing this by giving an example:
"so typically you would do X by having to do ABC. But what is really key is that you no longer have to do X now you can do DEF and that is better because_____"

idk that sort of thing
Sunbunny31
Politicker
2
Sr Sales Executive 🐰
I have a slide dedicated to what makes us different - and I can tweak it depending on what's most important to the prospect. Is it our overall service? Is it some specific aspect of compliance? Is it user experience? And I call out how we enable those things better than anybody else.
GTMLeader
Good Citizen
1
GTM Leader
Have you completed a SWOT Analysis of your competitors and your offering? Based on what you learn, you can find ways to deal with their strengths and capitalize on their weaknesses. You can be better prepared for the threats they pose and take advantage of the opportunities they create.
Arzola
Valued Contributor
1
Business administration
Well, in my opinion as a marketing expert you have several options, however I will put it this way...

1. If the product is practically all the same, you must differentiate it in some way, be it by offering an extra, offering some aspect that your competitors do not, the problem with software is that it is very easy to copy any innovation.

2.- Particularly I would go for customer service and personalization, it sounds silly, but many times people and companies like to feel that something was done for them and only for them and we all like to be heard, put a kind of advisor to call them once a week, ask how everything is going and if they have any problems with the program or anything else they think you could help with.

3.- Analyze your clients, get to know them and find out why they acquire your services and what they would like the program to do, sometimes adding a step or two no matter how silly it seems gives great advantages... example in a software company in which I worked, I analyzed my clients and I realized that all of them worked with excel and many times they pasted screenshots of the software because they couldn't put the information in excel... solution we placed a button that downloaded the information in an editable excel... and we destroyed the competition for 6 months... for something as dumb as that.

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