Having my competitors Better Products

This article's subject matter is a response to the question posed by one of my newsletter readers. Question - "At this moment, my competitors have a much better product / deal, due to circumstances beyond my control, however, customers go to a competitor and then come to me to compare How I go about assuring our customers .. services / products better on paper does not it? " Answer - Thank you for the question. I'll answer it as far as I could without knowing what you or your competitors sell. I believe this is a common experience for many of us in sales. Customers use our free of charge for all types of free - information, demos, test drives by, consultancy, etc. 

Of course, this is ready to give something free to expose people to your offer (I was an example of this newsletter). It has become too much however, and it was our fault in the sales profession. We have been struck with thinks we need to do whatever our customers request. We had to jump through hoops like a dog tricks, which makes us just a little closer to * maybe * get sales. Internet should be used as a marketing tool. The purpose of which is to build a lead free. And that's where a free gift should be terminated. Once you have the lead, and were able to engage customers in conversation alive, ends and valuable marketing begins. Successful sales is an exchange of value for value. It has always been like this because people traded grain and cloth for poultry and pigs. 

Today our professional sales "represent" a company and its products. This is why we are called "sales representative". We act as an agent, representing the trading companies, which represent our company in exchange of value for value. As a sales agent, we offer significant value to our prospective customers. Yes our products have value, but I do not talk about it. Value that we offer our knowledge and our time. We know a lot about our products, about our industry, about the future trends in our market, of our competitors, and many other things. We sell our products everyday. Our customers (most of them at least) do not buy this product every day. So in our knowledge has value. If you do not believe this is true, then you have to think about it a little more, or you work in the industry are going to get disintermediated by e-commerce. So what should you do? Respect your value as a salesperson. 

 Get commitment from your prospect. Get a commitment - to qualify them for the pain / first desire, budget, and decision-making skills, before presenting the details about your products. Get a commitment to make a definite decision after your presentation or proof step of your sales cycle. For this to work, you should still raised really good to get a critical illness / want to drive sales. You should know that they have the money to buy it. And you will be presenting the decision maker. You only have so many hours in a day, so use it well. If any future agreements Chase your way, you lose the real sales that you can go out and look. Violate one of these rules, you are rolling the dice and simple. (Yes I know it works for some people - but you never really make it big in sales winging this way). Note that what I have described above is the reverse order of how many salespeople have learned to sell. The main thing I tell you to do here, is to show AFTER you have qualified prospects and THEN you have the commitment to make a decision. 

 If you have a long sales cycle that involves various levels of decision-making, you can use the same approach. Instead of getting a commitment for advance decisions, you can get a commitment to perform the appropriate next step. It could be a meeting with the higher levels of decision-makers, or can get the right to give a presentation to an audience that is more influential. I call this "chaining commitment". This is the best solution. By taking the commitment, you will stop wasting time with people who are not serious about you. By asking the right questions up front (a topic for another newsletter), you may find something you missed the competition, giving you the opportunity to change the rules set out in the initial sales to your competitors being there first. If your product is not good, I do not believe you can persuade or convince someone that. Most people are not stupid. 

Eventually they will know you are trying to pull one over on them, if they do not know that when you actually try to do it with them. Finally, even the most competitive products, as the two products usually have a few advantages over products as one. Identify the pros, and focus your efforts on selling to prospects who want to benefit. Create questions designed to uncover pain / desire that will cause a person to want such benefits. Follow the above questions and the first commitment, final presentation, and you'll find yourself making money even if you sell for the company as one. © 1999-2004 Shamus Brown, All Rights Reserved.