Sooner or later we all understand that we are not the only provider of a service or a product in a particular market, trying to sell something to a customer. And sometimes sales and business people realise this out the hard way!
Competition is fierce, especially in some industries and among some product lines. And it is not just the competition with other providers that makes sales a hard job. One competes also with client’s inertia, the fact that customers may not want to buy anything after all and prefer to keep the same way they were before.
It is common though that unless you are in a very innovative domain, there will be many others approaching the person and the company you prospect to. And they may have a better and more matured product, a better marketing approach, being visible out there in the market for a longer period, delivering value constantly to the customer communities. Your competitors may have a larger and more experienced sales force, reaching out to customer more times than you do.
It is a different mindset one needs to develop if they are selling with small or no competition to the case where competition is in existence. It takes a different attitude altogether, more patience, better strategic planning, a different approach in sales discussions. Even one’s marketing approach shall differentiate if they want to find themselves in a more advanced position.
All start with studying the competition, making a competition landscape, understanding their competitive edge, what they do differently, not only in their product development but also in their business approach. Studying the competition and follow them closely will give you the opportunity to look at your personal differentiators which is something you need to bring in the surface and promote it. Talking about differentiators is something that we will talk more however in the next article.
Stay safe and motivated and keep selling!