Crush the Competition

January 19th, 2010

Competition is the reason your salespeople and many of your company’s other employees have work to do. If it weren’t for competition, businesses would lack the strongest incentives for change – new products, new processes, new markets, new strategies, new organizations, etc. Competition also encourages companies to introduce innovations that benefit their customers. And changes often mean new work and new opportunities for employees.

Information about your competition also makes it possible for your company to gauge sales performance in the marketplace. By comparing your company’s performance with that of the competition, you can identify potential strengths and weaknesses of your sales program or of your product and services.

If your team has a process and strategy for gathering and analyzing competitive information, competition can energize your salespeople. Your customers can be an excellent source of feedback about the competition, if your salespeople know how to dig for it. Knowing the competition enables your salespeople to target their efforts, to approach prospects and customers well prepared. Without thorough information, your salespeople are working blind.

Identifying the Competition – Defining and prioritizing the competition is the key to the success of your program. Rank your competition from strongest to weakest. Competitors in your same market are easy to identify. They are also easier for you to know about and understand since many of the same external elements affect both your organizations. Pay special attention to the strongest competitors – who present the biggest threat – and the weakest, who can be targets for opportunity. In doing an analysis of these firms, consider these factors carefully:

* How does the customer perceive your company in relation to the competition in the overall market?

* Where does your specific product fit into that perception?

So how do your people find out whom you’re competing against with a particular client? One way is for them to ask, “Are you talking to anyone else about this project?” or “Who else is bidding?” You will end up with some names, which you can compare against your knowledge about those companies. But you still won’t necessarily have a clear idea of which of those companies poses the greatest threat to your company in this situation, or why. So try an indirect approach:

Salesperson (to the client): Bill, what if we were out of the running on this project. If you had to make a decision right now, which of the remaining bidders would you choose?

Client: Probably Company DEF

Salesperson: Sure, I can see that. They’re good. But I would have thought you’d go with Company XYZ. What made you pick DEF?

And with the answer, you find out not only who you’re up against, but why and what. If your company is working with several people at the same company, take them through the same “what if” exercise and see if you come away with a better idea of how to target your sales effort.

Whether your people are planning for a presentation to a major prospect or the introduction of a new product, they need to know who and what they are up against in order to strategize.

© Sandler Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

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