Preparing to Make a Sale: The Competitive Talking Points I Use
Part of the sales process preparation phase is getting ready to talk about the competition. I discovered that this is practically an unavoidable topic when I’m having initial conversations with potential customers. As salespeople, it’s our job to be ready for this type of conversation at a moment’s notice.
So how do you prepare to talk about your competitors? You need to have talking points for each one of them.
Over the years, I’ve observed that a lot of salespeople are unprepared to talk about the competition. They either attempt to avoid it or talk about their competitors at such a high level that they fail to provide the key differentiators the customers are looking for. Worse still, there are salespeople who resort to disparaging the competition.
If we don’t prepare competitive talking points, we fail to draw a clear distinction between the solution we offer and what our competitors offer.
The Competitive Talking Points Outline
I wanted to be able to talk about the competition with my customers, so I learned and mastered the Competitive Talking Points Framework. It’s designed to leverage your knowledge of the competitors, and to enable you to deliver it with skill and discipline. Every company creates a competitive analysis, and it’s something that we as salespeople should be familiar with.
Here’s a good outline to follow when you’re creating your competitive talking points:
- Recognize your competitor’s strengths. You can also cite specific examples.
- Provide key insights on what makes you different from your competitor (eg. what your solution focuses on compared to theirs).
- Invite the customer to evaluate their needs.
- Share the solution that you offer. If it’s not what the customer needs, give them valuable advice on the solution they should pursue.
Now let’s put this framework into action so we can deliver high-value competitive talking points:
“Company XYZ is one of the best in the industry when it comes to traditional and out-of-home advertising.
Where we are different is that we focus on helping B2B and technology companies with their digital marketing by offering consultative services and creating strategies and campaigns around our clients’ specific goals.
As you think about your current needs, if you lean more towards traditional advertising, you should definitely be talking to the folks at Company XYZ.
But if you’re looking to explore more ways how your business can grow through digital marketing, then we sure hope that you consider us.”
The Competitive Talking Points Framework
Now let’s unpack the three principles that make up the Competitive Talking Points Framework, and I’ll share with you how to practice each one of them. First, let’s look at the aspect of Discipline.
- Do not disparage the competition
You should never find yourself doing this, as it’s unnecessary and it’s simply not a good practice. It’s always better to take the high road. I learned that it’s important to stay vigilant on this, as it’s possible to get caught off guard by a comment that implies you’re better than your competition. If we’re not ready to answer that, we might say something that comes off as criticism of our competition.
Being ready at a moment’s notice to talk about the competition allows us to elevate the conversation and stay above the fray.
- Take control of the situation
When we prepare ourselves for a conversation about our competition, we avoid becoming reactive. Rather, we’re able to take control of the situation.
- Determine if the competitor is a better fit within that moment
We can use this opportunity to qualify or disqualify a potential customer by determining whether the competition is indeed a better fit. While this would be bad news, we’ll be better off finding out now than wasting more time with a buyer who’s just going to go to the competition.
Now let’s look at the Knowledge facet of the framework — what you should learn before facing a customer.
- The competitive landscape
The framework requires us to have a solid understanding of our company’s competitive landscape and where each competitor plays.
- Your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses
We also need to know what our competitors are good at and where they need improvement. However, you’ll notice that in our example above, the weaknesses are not mentioned. Rather, we focused on the competitor’s strengths.
Why? This goes back to mindset. As salespeople, we should want our customers to make the best decision, and they can only do that when they’re objective.
Sometimes, our competitors are simply a better fit for their needs. Our job is to figure that out fast, so we don’t waste any time. The Competitive Talking Points Framework allows us to close or let go of a deal faster when we share what we know about how the competition might solve a customer’s challenge. Then we can draw a key distinction between our approach and our competitor’s, all while remaining positive and consultative.
The framework helps us build trust quickly because we’re simply stating the relative positioning of the competition and letting the customer decide what’s important to them.
Lastly, let’s examine the Skills required to use this critical framework.
- Listen to the customer’s needs and concerns
Start by listening. You must listen closely to what the customer is saying, where their needs are greatest, and what their concerns are.
- Ask the right questions
You should also know how to ask the right questions so you can: - Test assumptions
- Discover other needs
- Determine priorities
- Understand the role of other possible stakeholders
Once we have listened and asked the right questions, we’re more able to, at a moment’s notice, use the framework to focus our capabilities on the things that matter most to the customer, and differentiate those capabilities against the competitor’s strengths.
Mastering the Competitive Talking Points Framework takes tons of skill and practice because you need to be able to do it in real time. It’s part of the preparation phase of the sales process because you can know the framework in advance, and then use your skill and discipline to take charge of that conversation.
What the Framework Does
The Competitive Talking Points Framework allows us to build trust, credibility, and confidence by demonstrating to each customer that we not only know the competitive landscape, but that we respect our competition as well. And that we can speak intelligently and concisely about each competitor in a way that’s focused on the customer’s needs.
Going on Offense
Once you’ve learned and practiced your competitive talking points, the expert move is to go on offense. Rather than wait for the customer to bring up a competitor, why not lead?
Are you throwing an unnecessary wrench into your sales process by doing this? Quite the opposite, actually. As salespeople, we should assume that our customers are also evaluating our competitors. And we should take the lead in bringing them into the conversation.
How might this look in practice? Let’s take our example from earlier:
“Based on what you have shared with me, I got the impression that you are more familiar with traditional advertising.
You may have heard of Company XYZ, as they are one of the best traditional and out-of-home advertising agencies.
Where we are different is that we focus on helping B2B and technology companies with their digital marketing by offering consultative services and creating strategies and campaigns around our clients’ specific goals.
As you think about your current needs, if you lean more towards traditional advertising, you should definitely be talking to the folks at Company XYZ.
But if you’re looking to explore more ways how your business can grow through digital marketing, then we sure hope that you consider us.”
May I know where digital marketing is on your priority list?”
What Going on Offense Does
Going on offense is an expert move. So what does it do for us?
- Demonstrates our proactiveness
We are demonstrating that we’re unafraid of the competitor by bringing them into the conversation proactively. - Shows our care for our customer’s needs
If you’ll notice in our example above, even though we went on offense by bringing up our competitor, we also showed genuine care about tackling our customer’s real needs. - Builds trust
By taking the lead in talking about our competitors, we are building trust in the process. With expert moves like this, we become a trusted advisor.
Are you integrating risk into your sales process by mentioning a competitor? Maybe. But remember this: the credibility we gain by focusing on the customer’s real needs far outweighs the risk of bringing competitors into the conversation. So, we should not be afraid to be proactive on this topic.
Always be Prepared
You never know when your competitors might come up in your sales conversations, or when you might need to take the lead in talking about them. It’s always best to be prepared by having a clear understanding of your competitive landscape and by mastering the Competitive Talking Points Framework.
Let’s talk about how we can put these competitive talking points into action for your business.
About Jeev
A serial entrepreneur with a rich history of launching disruptive online businesses and taking them to the top, Jeev owns dozens of “go-to” reviews and rankings websites. Jeev has invested more than 20 years researching human behavior and how to leverage different sales methodologies to effectively influence decision-makers.To find out how Jeev can help you, visit jeevtrika.com.