Mentioning your Competitor in a Sales Conversation

One of the questions most sales persons would readily ask at sales trainings surely include; “Is it proper to mention your competitors during a sales conversation with a prospect, or rather ignore them totally“?

We have also listened to quite a huge number of sales pitches, as well as enjoyed some arguments while conducting sales training with various corporate institutions, where some trainees would argue “you should” and others, “you shouldn’t”.

Those who argued “you should” would argue that modern day customers, clients, or consumers are already well acquainted with information on competition.

How about those who aren’t?

Wherever you find yourself along this divide, you may need to have a rethink giving your competitor any cheap publicity.

Remember in sales, what you say, when you say it, and how you say it, is as important as the whole sales itself.

Talk about a competitor only when your prospect mentions, or the circumstances of your engagement has mutually exposed both parties to the knowledge or an experience with the competitor.

As a rule of thumb however, make no defamatory statements; it demeans your integrity.

Always be specific and clear about the edge your brand has over the competitor.

Examples:

“ABC brand is a great one, and I’m really impressed that you have XYZ regard for them. I share same ideas too, however, when it comes to RST, they have not been able to clear the cloud, which is one of the major reasons we are ahead of them. We have been able to establish DEF to give our clients the best value for their investments”.

“… when it comes to… we are better positioned to provide… solutions to our clients better than anyone else in the industry…”

“I acknowledge that they have been in the industry a very long time (even before I was born) and have delivered tremendous experience and value to the community over the years… but when it comes to data management, we are better positioned within the entire sector to give our clients firsthand and accurate information on all customers’ interaction/sales from their first digital touch-point”.

Hope this helped?

This is one of those ways we help provide solutions to some of the challenges sales professionals face in the field.

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