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SALES PITCH
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“However, if I don’t know what my competitor will do, I cannot
‘
prepare my prospect to react in a certain way,” he continues. “You
There are some terrific
can educate your customers and work with them in a way that
makes it very difficult or impossible for a competitor to make any
products out there, but the headway at all.
companies providing them are
“Part of the salesperson’s goal is to learn about their opponent
— the person who is contending for the same business,” he points
not doing as well because their
out. “A lot of salespeople don’t ask the questions, are not aware
of the importance of this and don’t look at things from as holistic a
salespeople don’t know how to
view as possible. It’s just not enough to do a better job presenting
compete effectively’
the benefits and the value of your product. There are some terrific
products out there, but the companies providing them are not
doing as well because their salespeople don’t know how to com-
pete effectively.”
Information age
Stein acknowledges it is difficult to accumulate information about
individual salespeople. “Finding out about the company and the
strengths of its products is the easy part,” he says. “Finding out
about the shortcomings of their products and services is a little bit
harder. It’s even more difficult to find out how the person who sells
for your competitor operates, what their strengths and weak-
nesses are, what their approach is and who they try to build rela-
tionships with and how. And if you do manage to get all this infor-
mation, things can easily change if that salesperson moves to
another company. Getting and maintaining this information is a big
challenge.”
One approach, he says, is to get into the habit of asking your
customers and prospects certain types of questions in order to
collect the data on an ongoing basis. “For example, not enough
people ask their prospects about alternatives they may be consid-
ering,” he says. “Even those who do ask rarely follow up by asking
questions about the alternative option’s sales rep.
“You can also take advantage of any dealings you have with
recruitment consultants,” he says. “If a recruiter calls you up to ask
if you’re happy in your job, you can chat for a while and then grill
them for information about your competitors. Many recruiters who
are trying to build a relationship with you will talk about other peo-
ple. Experienced salespeople know they can ask recruiters, busi-
ness partners, customers, prospects and other salespeople in
their company for information about their competitors. They can
also look on social networking sites.” Other options include joining
industry associations, going to conferences and networking events
and making contact with people who know the competitor.
Accumulating and maintaining this information is time consum-
ing, and Stein believes there needs to be balance. “I wouldn’t
May/June ‘08 Marketing Age 53
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