If you are in a competitive market and your small business relies on things like proposals, quotes, and presentations, you have likely experienced the heartache of losing a good sale to a competitor. I’ve had situations where I’ve had to make my presentation right before or right after my competitor did his. Trying to close a sale is hard enough; having to compete for it directly with a competitor adds an extra layer of challenge.
Stay Confident
You need to stay confident if you have to cope with a competitor. Throughout the competitive sales process, always present your best to your prospect. If you have direct contact with the competitor at any time, you want to make sure they see you at your strongest as well. I’m not talking bluff and bluster. The way to win sales is to know your stuff and to gain the trust of everyone involved. Trust wins more sales than the lowest bid.
Internally, you need to know and believe that you are better than your competition. Sometimes they have more experience than you, sometimes they know the prospect. You are going to lose sometimes, but that doesn’t mean that you’re the lesser business. Keep your eye on the ball, getting the sale. The competition is just a distraction. What you need to do is establish a relationship between you and your prospect, understand and meet their needs, and then trust that they will make the right decision.
Don’t Dis
Whatever you do, don’t bad-mouth your competition. Sure, your competitor may have some pretty big flaws, but you have to trust the intelligence of the prospect to figure those out. The best way to highlight the shortcomings of the competition is to show your own strengths. Often, in a competitive situation, you will be tempted to tell the prospect all the reasons they don’t want to work with your competitor. It doesn’t matter how legitimate those reasons are, your job is to convince prospects to work with you, not to convince them not to work with someone else.
Further, you shouldn’t dis your competitor. If you get a chance to meet them, be nice. Hold a conversation. You never know what may come of it. Sometimes you can pick up important intel. Perhaps you will find that your businesses can complement each other and you will have a chance to work together. Maybe you will talk to a great salesperson who would rather work for you. You never know what opportunities await, so stay positive.
Keep Coming Back
You will lose sales to competitors. There will be hundreds of reasons. Sometimes your competitor will be better than you. You should always bring you’re A game, but you will not connect with every prospect. Often, there are intangibles at play that you just don’t have any control over. When you lose a sale in a competitive situation, it will bum you out. But you have to get right back in the game. The worst ones will be when you knew you had the sale, and the competition swoops in with a crazy offer just to steal the deal.
In order to cope with a competitor when you lose a sale you need to be able to let it go. Talk to the customer if you can to find out why they didn’t choose you. Then stay in touch. You may have lost this sale, but another opportunity will arise. If it is a good prospect, do the follow up. Chances are that your competition will not do as good of a job staying in contact as you can, even though they won the sale. So don’t get angry or depressed, get even.
–
photo credit: Dawn – Pink Chick
