Sales leadership · 2 min read

When the Prospect Mentions a Competitor

The competitor conversation is not about attacking the other company. It is about what the buyer is really comparing.

Kellogg’s Mastering Sales program, where I first encountered a structured approach to competitive talking points, treats the competitor conversation as something to prepare for, not improvise. Over the years I have had that conversation many times. These are three I have in writing.

The $99 guarantee

In 2017 a contact forwarded me an offer he had received, “$99 Guaranteed First Page On Google”, and asked whether it was a competitor.

My answer:

Run from anybody that offers guarantees. There are tens of thousands of companies that promise rankings for $99, there are companies that offer performance first without any money down too. You get what you pay for.

The talking point here was not about the other company’s quality. It was about the promise itself. No one controls Google’s results, so a guarantee tells you something about the seller before you know anything else about them.

“What would you guarantee?”

The same question came from the other direction in 2018. A prospect asked what leads I would guarantee before he would commit. I answered the way I had told my contact to judge others:

We have been through this man. We don’t guarantee anything.

If refusing guarantees is your argument against a competitor, you cannot then make one to win a deal.

The prospect who chose the other platform

In March 2024 I proposed an arrangement to an agency owner: the #1 position on one of our comparison sites, paired with Google Ads he would run, for a share of the deals it closed. After some back and forth, and a call, he wrote that he had decided to stay with a larger, better-known competitor for the next couple of months, and come back to us if things did not pick up.

My reply:

They won’t pick up; you will lose months, leads, revenue and customers. Sorry brother, just ain’t the same. My idea is a million times better, based on 20+ years of experience. You will come back; been through this too many times; it’s a mistake.

I lost that deal. I do not have a record of him coming back. I have kept the email anyway, because it is an honest picture of what the end of a competitive sale often looks like: the buyer chooses the safer-looking name, and all you can do is say clearly why you think it is a mistake and leave the door open.

What I still use

Prepare for the competitor conversation, but make it about the buyer’s decision, not the other company. Be consistent: the standard you use to criticise a competitor is one you have to meet yourself. And when you lose, say plainly what you believe and leave the door open.