Down But Not Out
 

What do you do when your competition targets your business with a ferocity that includes bare-boned pricing and relentless selling? You could panic. That strategy won’t protect your business. This one will. At some point a competitor will be strong enough to try to take your business. It may seem grim. Yet even in this tough situation, it is not as bad as you think.
 

Where are you weakest? When you first realize a competitor is making a massive assault on your business, you must take immediate action. You know you have a problem. Analyze your territory and determine where your vulnerabilities are. A competitor who builds a distribution warehouse in your territory is now strongest in the geography closest to that warehouse. That competitor also has an urgent need to fill the distribution center with business. Locate your customers who are closest to that new warehouse and contact them first. Here’s where it’s best to make a face-to-face sales call, instead of a phone call, which might be easier for you. If you telephone your customer you will miss the cues that you can see. Perhaps the customer doesn’t really want to change. You can see more of their doubt when you’re in the office. You might ask to see the competition’s quote so you can better judge the entire offering. Terms could be different. Your customer might not tell you this on the phone. Before the meeting, ask yourself why these vulnerable customers should continue to do business with you. Be prepared to talk about this in the meeting. Even though the balance of power has changed relative to your competition, you can still find strengths by examining your business.
 

On sale later. A customer may say the competition is offering a lower price. Too many times a salesperson hears that the customer is asking for the salesperson to do the same. Pricing is your last option, not your first option. Listening and questioning are the skills that you’re going to need, especially now. Remember to remain calm and ask questions about the competitor’s complete offer. Your questioning will uncover whether the offer is meeting all of your customer’s needs. If you’ve done your job you should know more about your customer than your competitor does. Your services may include more than what your competitor can offer. That should be worth paying for. Your job is to execute your questioning strategy and uncover those areas that you believe are your customer’s concerns. When your customers answer your questions, the answers will result in a better understanding of their needs. If you find no reason to pay more, you can adjust your price. Just make sure that if you are offering a better service, your price is still slightly more.
 

Plant the seeds of doubt. When your competitors call on your accounts, they’re going to be painting the best picture of their service to your customer. All their talking doesn’t make it fact. They are still the unproven candidate while you are the proven one. Your job is to show the customer why the risk is greater to switch to a lower cost supplier who is unproven. Use your strengths that you’ve identified to plant the seeds of doubt. If the competition is unable to be as strong as you are, an opportunity exists for customer dissatisfaction. How will losing your strength impact your customer’s business? Remember the customer doesn’t know what the customer doesn’t know. Your job is to show him what he could be missing.

If you’ve been taking care of your customers they will need more than just pricing to make a switch. Low pricing will get your customers’ attention. Just make sure your competition’s low pricing gets your attention too.

Maura Schreier-Fleming works with business and sales professionals on skills and strategies so they can sell more and be more productive at work.  She is the author of Real-World Selling for Out-of-this-World Results which is available at www.BestatSelling.com.  She founded her company Best@Selling in 1997.  You can reach her at 972.380.0200 or mailto:info@bestatselling.com.

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