Sales Competition. How To Handle Competitors That Customers Bring Up.
\Always compliment a customer's previous buying decision. How to handle competitors when customers bring them up.
What do you do when s sales prospect asks you about a competitive company, product, brand?
The worst thing you can do is run down the other company, brand, salesperson, or product. Why? Because you have no idea how the prospect feels about that competitor.
What if the prospect likes your competitor? What if their parents bought the competitive product? What if they are thinking of buying it…because their cousin started working for the company?
And you never know what they currently believe about the competitive offer. And the odds are, the prospect isn’t going to tell you everything that they think about the competitor’s product, or why they are asking about it.
So, the best response is to say something nice about the other company, product, or brand. I like to say that “I know many people that have that brand and are very satisfied with it. Why do you ask?”. But I say “Why do you ask?” after I have complimented the other company.
And sometimes the prospect (or someone they love and respect) has already bought from that other company. And saying anything bad about the other company, is an indirect insult to that other person and their decision making ability. Many sales have been lost by insulting another company…losing the sale…and never knowing why.
And the best way to transition from that product/service to your product/service is to say that the other product has many advantages for someone that isn’t in the same situation that the prospect is in. In other words, the product is a great choice for someone else, but not your prospect and their needs. Of course, only say it if it’s true.
Don’t run down another company, even if the prospect does it themselves. That will come back to haunt you, either in that sale or another one down the road.
Claude’s Books;
One Call Closing: The Ultimate Guide To Closing Any Sale In Just One Sales Call https://amzn.to/3Ack5f4
Sales Prospecting: The Ultimate Guide To Referral Prospecting, Social Contact Marketing, Telephone Prospecting, And Cold Calling To Find Highly Likely Prospects You Can Close In One Call https://amzn.to/3u21EpO
Selling Essentials: Your First 90 Days In Selling https://amzn.to/3OqKxpK
Selling Local Advertising: The Best Kept Insider Secrets To Create Local Advertising Sales, FAST! https://amzn.to/3NnAUa7
Instant Sales Boost Podcast Website https://www.instantsalesboost.com/
Claude Whitacre has over 40 years of direct sales experience. In that time, he has trained hundreds of salespeople He is the author of six books on the subject of selling, as well as hundreds of articles. He has spoken to over 200 audiences across the US on how to how to find highly likely prospects and closing in one sales call.
Retiring in 2022 from actively selling, Claude wanted to give back to the sales and marketing fields by teaching the strategies and techniques that have proven so effective in his own selling.
One of the many strategies and practices Claude implemented over the decades is working with over 200 top salespeople on real sales appointments, in 71 different industries. He would work with them for a day, prospecting and going on sales appointments, with them. Then they would work with him in the field for a day. Eventually, Claude determined that about 98% of everything he used in his own selling was actually learned from top salespeople outside of his own core industry.
To pay forward what Claude has learned, he wanted to give salespeople the opportunity to benefit from what he did....learn from the best salespeople, experts, sales authors, and trainers from all over the country.
This podcast is that effort.
Claude has videos and articles on the following subjects.
Sales prospecting, cold calling, referral prospecting, social selling, referral selling, sales prospecting training, referral prospecting training, sales prospecting techniques, how to get the best referrals, how to cold call strategically, best cold calling techniques, sales training, best closing techniques, answering sales objections, and one call closing.