Under the Bus… thump-thump
Sometimes a competitor needs the cement shoes…
As Cathy, a CEO friend of mine likes to say, “Business is a rugby match, not a tea party.” It gets a bit exhausting always being the ‘nice guy’ in a not-so-nice world. Now, before the politically-correct police seize my digital poison pen, let me explain a little bit further… A client of ours is in a very competitive bid process in which part of their challenge is differentiating themselves from their competitors—in a way that is not about price. They can present themselves in a great way, but the language of their industry is rather common and shared between all of the competitors. And the brutal reality is that that common language was pretty much invented by our client. In other words, they’re so good at doing what they do that everyone else jumped on the bandwagon. But just how can they call out their competitors as the uninspired bottom-feeders they really are? (Without actually sending them to the bottom with those cement shoes…)
We don’t advocate running them down—that’s hardly the professional high road. And you can’t point out their flaws without making yourself look petty. So what’s a company to do? We use a number of techniques and one of my favorites is FRAMING. In framing, you define the prospect’s market conditions in a specific way and then illustrate why in their current condition, you are their best solution. You also explain why someone else would be a great solution if your prospect was in a different set of circumstances – your prospect just isn’t. One of the keys to this approach is to compliment your competitors. I know, I know, it seems counterintuitive. But here’s what you do: Place them as the best solution… in a very tiny set of conditions… which your prospect does not fit. Pretty smart, huh? Here are a few framing language models to consider: Evolution – Describe the industry, market, customer base over a period of time and show what changes have happened. In this model, you can talk about the world of the 90’s, the 00’s and now. By describing the evolution you can define competitors’ advantages as addressing a world that no longer exists. Revolution – Technology, regulation, off-shore competitors and other circumstances revolutionize businesses. Placing your competitors as great pre-revolution solutions is a good way to pigeonhole their value and emphasize yours. Devolution – The world has gotten smaller – language like “Competition locally required this…, competition nationally requires that…, international competition demands something altogether.” The language of these conversation follows this direction: “Understanding your market as it was until (6 months ago), I completely understand the choices you have made. As a matter of fact, I think under those circumstances, you probably made the best choice at that time. Under these conditions, I can see why you are exploring new options. Our specialty is helping companies like yours who are in this exact set of circumstances.” Killing them with kindness and compliments. We don’t have the monopoly on facing down competitors- what are some of your favorite techniques?
I agree. Oblique attacks on the competitors “fit” are more likely to sink in than head-on negative comments. In fact, I wish the politician candidates would read your comments!
The other challenge with “pure” negative comments about competitors’ flaws is that very often a portion of the comments will apply to your company too. So you end up providing ammunition that the client can one day use against you. Cynical? Yes. Accurate? Yes.
1It would seem odd that we agree so often on best practices like this, except for the fact that you taught me how to sell! I wish I had a dollar for every time I’ve heard Tom Searcy say “Kill them with kindness” and thankfully I do have many dollars for every time it has worked!
I have been using another version of killing the competitor with kindness in these tough economic times which goes like this; “We haven’t been able to compete with (insert name of very large competitor here) on pure price points simply due to the differences in size between our companies. When copper prices drop a couple of cents/pound they have the resources to buy a train car load of wire and store it to hedge the market. We obviously don’t have the resources to do that. So, rather than spend our energy wheeling and dealing on materials cost, we have focused on learning new technologies, perfecting the quality of our installation and improving the productivity of our labor.” And of course the next sentence is all about how this customer needs at least one of these things on their project and specifically why. And if they don’t need what we have to offer and only need the lowest price possible – we just let the big boys have them!
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