Sizing Up the Competition

Often, one of the first questions that an account executive asks a prospective customer on a first call in response to a lead is, “Who else are you considering?”? This is an important question for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is that it provides a glimpse of what the customer’s product exposure has been thus far. ?

While understanding the competitor’s strengths and weaknesses is valuable, our focus needs to remain on how we can address the customer’s challenges by leveraging our feature uniqueness to drive the most compelling business case that only we can deliver.? Along the way, by having a good understanding of the competitor’s relative strengths and weaknesses, we can tailor our presentations/demos accordingly.

Naturally, our competitive positioning can vary between competitors.? For example, if we offer a vertical solution amid horizontal solutions, we stress our domain expertise and support it with our industry specific functionality that uniquely drives business value.? If our competition lacks references in the space, we leverage our references with an emphasis on the financial value they have received directly from using our software.

We, of course, need to demo last, vet our business case with our executive sponsor and identify a true compelling event (one that is date sensitive with financial consequences).? Our base execution doesn’t change; we just need to ensure that we adequately leverage our advantages.

Defeating competitive vendors is relatively straight forward; the remaining obstacles (competing for money versus unrelated projects and defeating IT’s desire to build versus buy a solution) are often more difficult to overcome.? Defeating competitive vendors drives net new logos which drives your revenue multiple — you do not want to have a conversation with a strategic acquirer where your ratio is low (see graphic).??

Ultimately, by staying true to the 21 step MOIC Sales Engine sales process, we can apply our efforts where we are best positioned to win. For more information on defeating competition, ?please either ask Virtual Dave or email [email protected].