Bad Mouthing The Competition Hurts You - Not Them!

When I first started in medical sales, I was so naive. I had no idea my competitor was going around bashing me and my products to anyone who would listen.

But one day, my customer filled me in. He told me that my top competitor (who had been in the business forever and was threatened by our new stuff) had been going around making all these claims about what my products could and couldn't do. I was flabbergasted. This was a grown man, and I was shocked he would behave this way. But I was just a silly 25-year-old, and I had a lot to learn about the real world.

Luckily, my customer was completely disgusted, especially since a lot of what he was saying wasn't true anyway. I ended up winning that business, and a lot of other business within my territory over the next few years.

It's not that we shouldn't understand our competition. In fact, I'm a big proponent of taking the time to make a spreadsheet of you versus all your competitors.

It's VITAL for you to understand how you stack up against every single one, and understand your weak areas as well as your strong areas.

However, so many sales reps (like the old guy in my first territory) make the mistake of sharing that information with the customer, and it hurts your credibility big time.

Instead, use your detailed spreadsheet to ask intelligent questions and plant some landmines for the competitor (but not in an obvious way).

Hopefully, they will then go back to the competition, and ask about your landmine, and the competition will have to admit that they can't offer that particular feature or service.

What has your experience been like? Let me know in the LinkedIn comments!

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