Do You Know Who Your Competition Is?
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by: Guest
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There is a tendency of many salespeople to see their competition as only those businesses selling a similar product, service or idea. In other words, salespeople selling computers tend to see their competitors as other computer stores, retailers or manufacturers. People selling insurance, travel, furniture – you name it, whatever you sell, your competition is not just your direct competitors, but anyone and everyone who is trying to get a piece of the corporate or consumer dollar.
I can recall years ago, when I was just beginning my career as a speaker and trainer, I lost my first big sales training contract to a salesperson selling computer hardware. In my sales approach, I strategically positioned my features and benefits so that any other speaker/trainer would have difficulty successfully competing with me. Problem was, I was successful at keeping my fellow speakers and trainers at bay, but ultimately lost the sale to someone who was selling something totally unrelated to training. I asked myself – where did I go wrong?
It was simple – I saw my competitors as people who sold only what I was selling. WRONG. My prospect, the company president, told me that the training program I was selling was important to him and they would keep it on the back burner for the short term. Upgrading all of their computer hardware was more important to him now.
What’s the answer? If you are going to continue to succeed and prosper in sales, you have to be better, smarter, quicker, more flexible, more resilient, etc., etc., than every salesperson in your territory no matter what they sell. Just being better than the people selling copiers, if you sell copiers, is not enough.
Your clients/prospects have a limited amount of resources to purchase everything they need to run their businesses: payroll, taxes, supplies, manufacturing, shipping, utilities, marketing, etc. If you are going to get your share of this available cash, you have to convince your client/prospect that your product/service is more important than any other purchase they are considering.
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