Notes From the Front Lines, an IT Sales Blog

Two things happened to me this week.  One I lost a big, really BIG deal to a competitor and Two - I read an article in Selling Power Magazine related to selling in the face of bad news.  These may seem to be two separate items on the surface but they an interesting connection that I thought was worth writing about.

The article in Selling Power ran in the back (page 7 of the September 2006 issue and is all about tips for selling when your company is having bad press.  While this is a difficult time to be selling for your company the article does a good job at highlighting some tips and techniques to get over it. 

The most interesting part to me was an insert in the article called “secret Technique: Booby Trap the Competition”.  This insert can be referenced here: http://www.sellingpower.com/article/display.asp?Action=Sidebar&aid=SP6955668&sid=SP4891302 (you may need to register to open the link)

Jim Holden has a very good technique for PROACTIVELY addressing the competitions inevitable comments related to your company’s bad news.  Sales people can not resist the urge to pounce on their competitors bad news.  Sometimes this works but more than not it fails.  I made a practice long ago to not speak negatively of any competitor, regardless of their size, sales tactics, or bad press.  Why? Because it never casts you or your company in a good light.  Any informed, bright, or due diligence oriented customer already knows the competition, their value add, and any questions regarding their ability to deliver what the customer needs.  By bringing up dirt on your competition you are telling your customer they do not have the intelligence to make an educated decision on their own.  This should never be done.  By not throwing dirt you are setting yourself at a higher ethical level and your customer will see that.  — I just wish those damn politicians would realize how insulting their negative attack ads are!!

 So the technique in the link above is perfect for those of us taking the high ground.  It give you a way of not throwing dirt and at the same time defends you against your competitor who will throw dirt at you.  I have used this time and time again it it works if you focus on doing it at the right time and in the right way (casual introduction and then leave it).

So my week - I lost a huge deal because my firm could not produce a relevant reference to a project that was similar in size and scope to the one we were bidding.  We have many references but they were in the Federal Gov’t and could not be referenced on a call.  The Federal Gov’t just will not do that.

We made the client promises on delivery time and cost, to limit their risk.  We bid fixed cost.

We gave the client numbers written case studies on work similar to their project just could not produce a client for them to talk to.

We lost - our competitors pushed their experience and our inexperience, and had a better written proposal than we did.  The decision was not cost based, it was PERCEIVED experience based.

While we never bashed our competitor, I am confident they did against us.  I did not use the above technique and I lost the opportunity to make them look bad.  Would we have won if I did?  Maybe, or maybe not.  But since I did not use it I will not know.  The lesson here is to use what you have, defend what you don’t, and always take the high ground - win or lose you will sleep better at night and your customers will respect that.  This customer even told me that they really liked our professional, low pressure approach and would be open to using us in the future.

As always I welcome your comments

ITSalesPro -.-