From the course: Business Development Foundations: Researching Market and Customer Needs

Address competitors

From the course: Business Development Foundations: Researching Market and Customer Needs

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Address competitors

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- One of the most powerful lessons I learned about sales came from watching my nephew do aikido. Aikido is a form of modern Japanese martial arts. It translates to the way of unifying life energy. I love that. In aikido, you're taught that when someone tries to attack you, you don't block the force of the attack. Instead, you move towards it and you direct the energy to something else. So, what does that have to do with business development? Well, when your prospect brings up a competitor, your gut reaction is often to push back against it. You just want to make it go away. But that only makes your prospect push harder against you. So let me show how to harness the power of a competitive conversation and use the energy to move your sales process forward. To preemptively reduce the amount of force, you should ideally be the one to broach the subject by bringing up the competition. If you're a smaller company, you can say something like you know, as you look at all the options out there, our firm is smaller and that's why we specialize in careful attention. Or if you're the major player you can say you know, we offer a robust service department, that's one of our differentiators. Frame yourself before someone else does. It might feel a little bit uncomfortable, but it is very beneficial in the long term. Rarely will simply asking are you exploring other options prompt your prospect to go find another option. What it does is it gives you a lens into where you stand and what weaknesses you're gonna have to overcome. So when a competitor does come up in a discussion, use the same principles of aikido to not push against it. First, validate. You know, pushing back just increases the tension. So even if your prospect is talking about how the competitor has an advantage over you, you want your prospect to feel heard and understood. Now, obviously, if your prospect is incorrect, you want to politely correct them. But in the event they're right and you do have a weakness against a competitor, use some language like I understand and you very clearly put a lot of research into this decision. That will reduce the tension. Next, move the energy into something productive. Redirect that conversation to an area where you have strength. Like where you achieve metrics your competitor can't or how your feature will help your client improve their objectives. Descending into a he-said-she-said, that will only damage your relationship and it can cost you a deal. Instead, validate the energy and move it to a productive conversation. Just like in aikido, take energy and make it work for you. Listen to your prospect's concerns then redirect negative conversations to the positive and you will win the match.

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