The Playing Field has Changed

Sellers are often very excited about their products, or the fact that their company is an industry leader. These are important points of consideration, to be sure. No one wants to buy sub-par products from an inferior company.

But, let’s consider for a moment what your competitors are likely saying about their product, service, or company. Just a guess, they’re the “leading provider of widgets in North America, with a track record of success and a long-standing commitment to our customers in terms of providing excellent service, blah, blah, blah…” 

For competitors who are at all viable, it’s easy to craft a story that sounds just as good as the next. Granted, if you happen to have a highly differentiated product, like the cure for cancer, you won’t have any problem getting customers to pay attention. On the other hand, if you sound just like everyone else, then you forfeit whatever competitive edge you may have had.

This raises an important question. Whether you sell manufactured goods, financial services, real estate, energy, professional services, or you sell into any other highly competitive environment, if your product and company are not the differentiators, then how can you create a clear and differentiable advantage in the marketplace?

NEWS Flash! The field on which the ‘game’ of selling exists has changed. Instead of trying to convince customers that your claims are somehow more viable than that the next person’s pitch is a losing proposition—because it immediately takes you to a discussion of lowest price, as customers will stipulate that everyone’s claims of greatness are equally compelling (or, not so much).

Your goal today ought to be learning how to win when it’s a tie, or when it’s close. How do you win the sale when everyone has the same basic elevator pitch about their offerings? The answer to this question is literally intangible.

When multiple vendors compete for mindshare (or wallet-share), your probability of success in the sale is directly proportional to the customer’s perception. Are you, or are you able to demonstrate:

- Credibility     - Competence     - Integrity

- Responsiveness    - Thought Leadership    - Value

- Creativity     - Customer Focus     - Persona

- Confidence     - Comfort Level      - Experience

- Responsiveness      - Helpfulness     - Intelligence

- Forthright     - Interest Level     - Attitude

- Conversational     - Current       - Relevance

- Purposeful      - Knowledge     - Empathy

It’s one thing to get a meeting with a prospective client. It’s quite another thing to be able to demonstrate any or all of these desirable qualities within a small window of time. In fact, the key to winning the sale is to be able to demonstrate more of these intangibles sooner, at least more than the competition.

How can a salesperson demonstrate more credibility sooner? That’s where strategy and technique come into play. Credibility, for example, is not something that you can just claim without sounding arrogant. Likewise, announcing to someone that you are customer-focused is no where near as valuable as demonstrating that you are.

Fortunately, there is great interdependencies between many of these intangibles, where for example, in Question Based Selling, asking a series of Diagnostic Questions can build instant credibility, demonstrate purpose, convey relevance, pique the customer’s interest, and increase your perceived value.

From now into the foreseeable future, the playing field on which sales will be won or lost has more to do with the intangible perceptions formed by the customer, than the actual product or service that’s being offered. Thus, until your competition goes away, your job entails figuring out how to convey more intangible benefits sooner.