One of the observations I have made is this: There is usually some degree of truth in the details of these elements. Your hot new product may have several features that your competitor’s does not have, for example. However, in the big picture, your competitor offers a sound business option to your customers. While your new product contains some features that your competitor’s does not, his product probably contains some features that your product doesn’t
contain. And while you claim your service to be superior, so does he. And your people are probably not any more experienced and knowledgeable than his people. From the 10,000 foot high perspective, if your competitors were as flawed as you think they are, they wouldn’t be in business, and your customers wouldn’t be buying from them.
In all likelihood, your competition is made up of educated, committed people who are trying just as hard as you are to be a viable option to your customers, to conduct their businesses with integrity just like you, and who strive to do a good job and to provide for their families through the fruits of their labors, just like you.
So, bury those attitudes of superiority, and cast off that disdain for the competition. If your customers didn’t think they presented a viable option, they wouldn’t be buying from them.
Don’t believe everything you hear.
We
occasionally hear comments from our customers with complaints about the competition, or stories of how they messed up on some project. This, of course, contributes to our natural tendency toward smugness by confirming our views.
Let’s take all of that with a healthy degree of skepticism. Understand that the
people who share that information with us are typically those customers with whom we have the best relationship – those that we consider our friends. What we see as confidential information about the competition’s weaknesses may just be the natural human inclination to tell us what they believe we want to hear. Our friends want to find common ground with us. And our animosity toward the competition provides potentially productive soil to plow.
It’s been my observation that many of those customers who are reporting on the flaws in the competition to you, are reporting on your flaws to them.
Don’t view everything you hear as 100% accurate.
Don’t speak badly about the competition – ever.
Disparaging the competition, speaking badly about the company or the individual sales people, using little innuendos and.... READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE