Articles
Ten strategies for outsmarting the competition
by John GrahamIt doesn’t take any brains to beat the competition on price. But outsmarting
the competition is quite different––and far more challenging
and worthwhile. While low price gets an order, out maneuvering the competition
gets a customer. Here are 10 moves to put competitors on the defensive.
1. Don’t even think about faking it. Anyone in
business who attempts to control the truth is extremely dangerous. It
can’t be done––at least for very long. There’s
always someone watching, blogging or carrying a cell phone with a camera.
And there’s always YouTube.
Vaunted Southwest Airlines took a huge hit for its alleged overly cozy relationship
with FAA inspectors. The company allowed 46 of its planes to fly that were out
of compliance. There were no accidents but the airline’s image crashed.
For an organization like Southwest that thrives on positive PR, why would it
allow potentially life threatening safety maintenance shenanigans to occur?
No matter what Southwest says about its safety record, the brand has been harmed.
If it can happen to Southwest, it can happen to any company.
2. Always act scared. Get over trying to be super-confident
and cool. That’s nonsense. If you’re not scared, you don’t
have a clue to what’s going on. Let’s face it. It’s
truly scary on the street.
When Andy Grove, Intel’s CEO, wrote his memoirs, he called it Only
the Paranoid Survive. There’s never been a more honest business book.
Acting scared has a big pay off. While everyone else is pretending to be deliriously
happy out on the golf course, your antennae keep you tuned into threats and opportunities.
Just remember that the Bear Stearns CEO didn’t see the train coming. He
was too busy snapping his suspenders and spending Fridays chasing the little
white ball.
3. Stop lapping up stupidity. When it comes to sales,
there’s an endless market for BS. Just for fun, I Googled “sales
advice,” and in 0.11 seconds, there were 5,940,000 listings! There’s
only one reason for all of that. At least 99.99% is nonsense.
Here’s the test: if anyone tries to make selling simple, they are lying.
All they want is your money. Selling is tough work and that message doesn’t
sell well.
Moral of the story: stay away from anyone and anything that promises to turn
you into a super salesperson.
4. Focus on concepts and ideas. The biggest problem
for salespeople is letting what they sell get in their way––and
tripping them up. Customers don’t care about what we sell; they
are looking for help to achieve their goals.
Never underestimate the power of ideas. The subprime loan postmortem makes clear
just how many of those who took out these loans weren’t buying homes––they
were buying their dreams. What they bought wasn’t a home. It was a retirement
ticket, a way to get rich or to be somebody. As it turns out, the property purchased
didn’t even remotely meet their actual needs. The real “pressure” came
from within.
The point is not to justify what has happened to millions of Americans. It is
simply to point out how the compulsive power of a dream can compel irrational
behavior.
5. Figure out how you can help your customers. Actually,
most salespeople couldn’t help customers if they wanted to (and
many don’t). The reason is simple: they never make the investment
required to understand the customer’s business, other than glancing
at a website or a brochure and faking the jargon.
No matter how much salespeople may protest, a recent survey by Sirius Decisions2
sets the record straight. Here are their expectations: 93% wanted them to be
well-informed of their business issues, while 90% expected them to be informed
about the industry in which they produce and compete. A total of 91% wanted salespeople
to have done their homework on the executive’s organization before any
meeting, and 64% expected them to be informed about their competitors’ strengths,
weaknesses and strategies.
When the executives were asked how salespeople actually perform, 82% said they
have not done the proper homework on the company’s critical issues or needs
and just try to sell their product without any connection to their needs. Seventy-two
percent reported that salespeople frequently are not well informed about the
prospect or the business environment.
How can salespeople expect to have value and to help customers when they don’t
know anything about their challenges and needs?
6. Get serious about database management. Most companies
are in total disarray when it comes to managing customer and prospect
information, including those using sophisticated CRM systems.
The issues range from inaccurate, incomplete and totally missing information
to a refusal by some salespeople to enter any data. Worse yet (if that’s
possible), management often is duped into believing all is well, that data is
being collected, updated and tested.
And what about the top 10, 100 or 1,000 customers? What is their value to the
company and how do you show it? Then, there are prospects. What is the plan for
their constant cultivation?
7. Get serious about what customers value. Companies
seem to have an unquenchable psychological need to feel that they are
delivering value to their customers and certainly more value than their
competitors.
And don’t just assume, as too many companies do, that you know what’s
important to customers. That’s dangerous. Recently, a company acted on
limited input from employees about a particular customer issue and it turned
out to be dead wrong and an instant negative reaction from their customers.
Getting serious about learning what’s important to customers requires periodic
objective surveys by a third party, unless you only want to hear good news.
8. Keep your commitments. Unquestionably, the way to
succeed in sales is to keep your promises. If you say, “I’ll
get that information for you by tomorrow,” do it. If you agree
to follow up on a prospect, do it. This is the stuff of which sales are
made.
In other words, do what you say you’re going to do. This is your guarantee.
Yet, the words make most of us nervous and antsy. “What happens if a meteor
hits and everything is buried in dust? Or, more likely,
“What if my car breaks down or the Internet goes dead.”
Reputations in sales are built on keeping commitments.
9. Emphasize information. Entrepreneurial business can be easily
infected with what Dhananjay Nayakankuppam, a marketing professor at the University
of Iowa, calls the Blissful Ignorance Effect. It suggests that people who have
only a little information about a product are happier with that product than
those with more information.
Companies are not exempt, either. One organization wanted to get their team together
for a day and come up with strategic marketing concepts. When it was suggested
that obtaining data by surveying customers and prospects could make the session
far more productive, that was viewed as a waste of time.
Yet, the same company would be aghast if engineers would say that it’s
a waste of time and money testing the soil for a new building. Making decisions
without adequate objective information gives the competition a free pass. It’s
also stupid.
10. Be direct. Most people would like to be far more
direct than they are. We pull back because we don’t want to offend
anyone. When you think about it, our value to customers is in being candid
with them. This may be more of a male trait, since women seem to be more
direct––which is why they can be so good in sales.
Being direct initiates discussion and dialogue, and helps foster new ideas. This
is what makes a salesperson’s knowledge and experience useful to customers.
Failing to be candid diminishes their value and calls their honesty into question.
Without even realizing it, we often play into the competition’s hands.
The problem that causes us to lose business isn’t so much price as it is
handing business to a competitor on a silver platter and not even knowing it.
John R. Graham is president of Graham Communications, a marketing services and sales consulting firm. He is the author of The New Magnet Marketing and Break the Rules Selling, writes for a variety of business publications, and speaks on business, marketing and sales issues. Contact him at 40 Oval Road, Quincy, MA 02170; 617-328-0069; jgraham@grahamcomm.com.