My Competition Is Killing Me!
By
Bill E. West
"What am I supposed to do when my prospect tells me that my competitor is offering the same service at a lower price?"
In a recent meeting with a group of salespeople I asked the question what's the toughest obstacle in your marketplace today. I got a variety of answers, but the one that I found most troubling was the one above. This individual clearly believes that his services are the same as his competitors, and is failing to find a way to distinguish his company from its competitors. When I went around the table and asked other salespeople if their company offers something more in the way of value than their competitors, I got a resounding yes, and a list of differences! So the next obvious question for the salesperson was if that's true, did the prospect know this? Feeling a bit trapped he said "yes, of course I tried to explain all these things to the prospect but he was focused on price".
My intuition tells me that this may not have been accurate, and that I put the salesperson on the spot. The reputation of this company is without question and the services they have provided for over a 40 year span to their industry says volumes about their ability to bring added value to their customers.
The truth is this individual just isn't getting the message across to the prospect. And the probable reason is because he doesn't believe it himself. Of course the prospect is cost conscious, but it's been my experience that in general, people are more value conscious than cost-conscious.
It's not clear to me that this salesperson is well prepared or qualifying his prospects to see if his company's strength's will match up to what the prospect really wants to accomplish. Price is the obvious place for a prospect to start. Good salespeople know that being prepared (as in well scripted to overcome this objection)to show a prospect how they can provide real value, meet their goals, and show they are the best company to meet their real needs is critical to eliminating the low price issue. It's been my experience that people are willing to pay for quality service and products if that's what meets their needs.
As a good salesperson, learning how to get a client or prospect to open up and tell you what they really want to accomplish is an important skill in getting past the price issue. We all know including the prospect that rarely is the lowest priced company the best company.
It's my opinion that people who claim they can't sell because they're being under priced are really just saying, they can't sell!
In a recent meeting with a group of salespeople I asked the question what's the toughest obstacle in your marketplace today. I got a variety of answers, but the one that I found most troubling was the one above. This individual clearly believes that his services are the same as his competitors, and is failing to find a way to distinguish his company from its competitors. When I went around the table and asked other salespeople if their company offers something more in the way of value than their competitors, I got a resounding yes, and a list of differences! So the next obvious question for the salesperson was if that's true, did the prospect know this? Feeling a bit trapped he said "yes, of course I tried to explain all these things to the prospect but he was focused on price".
My intuition tells me that this may not have been accurate, and that I put the salesperson on the spot. The reputation of this company is without question and the services they have provided for over a 40 year span to their industry says volumes about their ability to bring added value to their customers.
The truth is this individual just isn't getting the message across to the prospect. And the probable reason is because he doesn't believe it himself. Of course the prospect is cost conscious, but it's been my experience that in general, people are more value conscious than cost-conscious.
It's not clear to me that this salesperson is well prepared or qualifying his prospects to see if his company's strength's will match up to what the prospect really wants to accomplish. Price is the obvious place for a prospect to start. Good salespeople know that being prepared (as in well scripted to overcome this objection)to show a prospect how they can provide real value, meet their goals, and show they are the best company to meet their real needs is critical to eliminating the low price issue. It's been my experience that people are willing to pay for quality service and products if that's what meets their needs.
As a good salesperson, learning how to get a client or prospect to open up and tell you what they really want to accomplish is an important skill in getting past the price issue. We all know including the prospect that rarely is the lowest priced company the best company.
It's my opinion that people who claim they can't sell because they're being under priced are really just saying, they can't sell!
Bill West is a Business Performance & Profit Impact Coach, http://www.strategicgameplan.com
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