Hi!
Here's the April 2010 issue of Psyche-Selling TM
eNewsletter, and we would like to explore how you can get a
better competitive edge in this age of hyper-competition.
Recently, I was participating in a workshop on "Creating
Winning Bids" conducted by
Shipley Associates, and while during a
group discussion, we stumbled upon this question that we may
want our customers to ask, "How to Lure Away Your
Competitors' Key Accounts and Make Them Buy from You
Instead?".
While the objective in sales is to get customers to buy,
sometimes a little reverse psychology maybe very insightful
at times, especially when they are already accustomed to
buying from your competitors.
Hence, this month's topics:
-
How to Lure Away Your Competitors' Key Accounts and Make
Them Buy from You Instead;
and
-
How to Generate More Leads that Lead to Sales
This issue's main article is on "How
to Lure Away Your Competitors' Key Accounts and Make Them
Buy from You Instead?", and
the focus is on determining the factors on what will make
those potential customers interested in buying from you.
In brief:
-
Despite the usual objections from prospective customers
saying that they are happy with the price, service and
quality of their current vendor, there are other factors
that may favour you as well;
-
While it is a good idea to have a Unique Selling
Proposition, you need to develop more in-depth "reasons
to buy" if you were to win your competitor's customers
over to you;
-
They key to sales success is to balance the need to keep
on prospecting for new customers and expanding your
market share, while at the same time make your customer
value you more than your competitor. Read on...
...
How to Lure Away Your Competitors' Key Accounts and Make
Them Buy from You Instead
by c.j. Ng
Let's face it. If you are in sales, like I am, we
would all be very interested to increase our market share.
Even when the market is growing, we sure would like to have
a piece of our competitor's business. However, when we
were to approach our competitor, these are the more common
responses:
-
"Yes we are interested, but can it be cheaper?"
-
"I already got a better price from your competitor"
-
"What you are offering is good, but I'm quite happy with
what I have now" , etc.
While customers are constantly looking for better deals,
they inadvertently lead to price. At the same time,
sales people who are desperate to make the numbers and hit
targets will inadvertently agree to the price that they can
barely accept.
But even if you were to offer a very attractive price, your
competitor's key accounts may not be willing to pay
attention to you just yet.
"Why You Must Buy from Us, Apart from the Price"
In the attempt to make customers buy, many sales people
often give customers a whole list of selling points so that
customers see the seller's
Unique Selling Propositions (USPs) and other
product advantages. For the uninitiated, here are some
examples:
-
"When it absolutely, positively has to be there
overnight!" (Federal Express)
-
"Pizza delivered in 30 minutes or it's free."
(Dominos Pizza)
-
"The milk chocolate melts in your mouth, not in your
hand" (M&M's)
Unfortunately, life isn't as simple. Whatever products
you deliver, your competitors can do so too, and at lower
prices (See our
Mar 2010 issue for details). This is why
customers keep on referring back to price, since they could
not differentiate between you and your competitors, at least
superficially.
The good news is that customers do NOT just buy from price
only. In our discussions with a number of buyers (or
procurement managers), we do find that they usually DON'T
buy from the cheapest nor the most expensive quotations, not
even in public tenders. What they do really want is to
get the best "value for money" or have better "reasons to
buy".
As we probe deeper, here are some of the factors that make
up customers' perception or definition of "value" or
"reasons to buy" apart from price, which you can call the 4
"R"s:
-
Reliability.
Whether you, as the seller, can deliver your promises in
ALL aspects ranging from product quality, delivery
lead times, maintenance schedules etc.
-
Responsiveness.
Not just service responsiveness, but also sales team's
responsiveness to the customers' needs and concerns.
This also includes sales people who are stationed
on-site at the customers' plants, offices or facilities
to help customers solve problems when using your
products
-
Resourcefulness.
Can you take the initiative to generate creative ideas
to help your customers do more with less resources?
Can you get the buy-in from your own company to support
your customers' objectives?
-
Relationship.
Apart from cultivating
guanxi with some key decision makers,
seek to build relationship with everyone that has an
influence over whether this customer should or should
not buy from you. These people include the
gatekeepers, fault-finders, end users, and just about
anyone who will be affected by the products you provide,
or who has some contributions with regards to how your
products can be used (or not be used) in their company.
"What IF I Don't Buy from You?"
The reason that your prospective customer is not buying from
you yet, is that they haven't seen the negative consequences
of NOT buying from you yet. In their minds, they are
subconsciously asking "What IF I don't buy from you?"
And if your sales team doesn't have a good response to that
question, you won't get the deal.
Supposed your company is a leading provider of an industrial
equipment that is "mission critical" to a certain part of
your customer's operating process. The situation that
you are facing can be prioritised as follow:
-
Relationship.
The customer's procurement manager has a strong relationship
with your competitor, who is the incumbent vendor. The
competitor also sells at 15% below your price.
However, it seems that your competitor has not cultivated
any relationship with other influencers, especially the end
users and head of engineering/ production.
-
Reliability.
While your competitor's equipment provides Reliable
performance in day-to-day operations, but its safety may be
compromised if there's an accident, such as a fire.
Since the customer is not so much concerned about the
possibilities of "accidents", they view your competitor's
product as being Reliable.
-
Responsiveness.
Your competitor is Responsive when it comes to maintenance
and repairs, but their sales people only drops by when they
are taking sales orders. They are rarely on-site to
provide assistance and insights if the end-users encounter
problems and difficulties.
-
Resourcefulness.
While many players in your customer's industry are taking
steps to upgrade their plants and equipment to achieve
higher levels of safety, your customer has yet to do so
since they deem the upgrading too expensive. Your
competitor has yet to give a good response to this issue.
Most sales people following on this customer would have lost
the sale, since the competitor has a strong relationship
with the procurement manager, sells at a lower price and is
perceived to be reliable. What you can do is to
re-prioritise your approach to:
-
Resourcefulness.
Since the main obstacle for the customer to upgrade their
equipment is cost, perhaps what your sales team can do is to
work out a way for the customer to implement their upgrading
in gradual steps, so that their upgrading costs can be
spread over time.
-
Responsiveness.
Your sales engineers can visit the customer's end users
on-site to help end-users solve daily usage problems, even
though they are operating on your competitor's equipment.
Such problems and your suggested solutions can then be
documented and be presented to their head of engineering/
production, and explore if you can help them eliminate some
of the recurring problems.
-
Reliability.
Your sales team's Responsiveness is going to enhance the
trust between you and your customer, such that they will be
more convinced that they need better Reliability in case of
accidents and emergencies. Your Resourcefulness will
also convince them that it may not cost as much initially if
they want to upgrade part of their production system first.
-
Relationship.
By leveraging your Resourcefulness, Responsiveness and
Reliability, even if the customer's procurement manager has
a strong Relationship with the incumbent competitor, the
voices in the customer's organisation will switch to your
favour. By developing Relationships with the end users
and other key influencers, you can even influence how the
scope of their next public tender can be written in your
favour.
So to answer the customer's question of "What if I don't buy
from you", you can confidently state that they will incur
more losses and subject themselves to more danger IF they
stick to their current vendor. It may be in their best
interest to start working with you and your team.
"What if I Want All You can Offer, and Still Demand a Lower
Price as well?"
At this point, some sales people will say that there
will be customers who will demand that we deliver the
results through better Resourcefulness, Responsiveness,
Reliability and Relationship, and yet still want us
to sell at the same price as those who don't.
Well, if that is your only customer, or one of your few key
customers, then perhaps they know that they are paying your
bills. Hence, they will squeeze you real hard if they
know you need them much more than they need you.
However, if you have a good prospecting process that allows
you to generate enough leads, you can stand firm and insist
on your prices. Chances are that if a customer is
haggling with you over price, that usually means that they
are interested in buying from you.
If you stood firm
and refuse to give in, you have a 50/50 chance of still
winning the deal.If you have a number of high quality leads in your sales pipeline, that will be a risk that may be worthwhile to take. The ones that are willing to give you a try will be more than worth your effort.
Need help in luring your customers away from your competitor and buy from
you instead? Simply e-mail
info@directions-consulting.com or call +86-136 7190 2505
or Skype:
cydj001 and arrange to buy me a mocha. All
information shall be kept in confidence.
Power Breakfast Hour: 21 May 2010
How to Lure Away Your Competitors' Key Accounts and Make
Them Buy from You Instead
Join International Sales Leadership and Performance Coach
c.j. Ng in this Power Breakfast Hour in Shanghai where he
will be sharing with you how you can lure away your
competitors' key accounts and make them buy from you
instead:
-
How to overcome customer objections such as "I'm quite
happy with my current vendor"
-
How do you respond when customers ask you "What if i
don't buy from you?";
-
How to make sure you have enough leads in your sales
pipeline so that you can gain greater bargaining power
with your prospective customers
VENUE: To be Confirmed
DATE: Friday, 21 May 2010
TIME: 08:00 a.m. - 10:00 a.m.
PRICE: RMB 200 ONLY!
To make this a more conducive discussion, we are expecting a
small group of about 15 people only. The room can only take
in 18, so please register early to avoid disappointments.
Please e-mail your registrations to
sales@directions-consulting.com To allow more
participation from more companies, ONLY 2 registrants per
company are invited.
Pls. check out our web sites
www.directions-consulting.com and
www.psycheselling.com/page4.html for more inspiration.
Need a Keynote Speaker for your Regional Sales Conference?
Whether you are holding a conference for your regional
staff, resellers or even customers, we have the right
speaker who can help you deliver the spirit of your
conference, and effect positive changes to meet your goals.
The topics our speakers can speak on include:
-
Why Some Sales People Succeed While Others Fail?;
-
How to Inspire and Motivate Your Team, and Win Big;
-
From Better Service to Greater Profits;
-
Sun Tzu and the Art of Sales Leadership;
-
The End of Guanxi as We Know It!; and many more!
Simply e-mail your requests to
info@directions-consulting.com or call +86-21-62190021
for enquiries. Sample video and audio recordings
available upon requests.
Practical Tips for Sales Teams:
How to Generate More Leads that Lead to Sales
By c.j. Ng
If you are in sales, chances are you will need to generate
leads and find some new customers. Even if your job is
to solely focus on existing key accounts, it will still be a
good idea if you have a couple of new customers once in a
while to make up for the attrition of old ones.
However, most sales organisations rely on 1 or 2 methods to
generate leads, when they probably can get better results if
they were to synergise a few methods to generate a lot more
QUALIFIED leads. Here's how you can do so:
-
Cold
call. Cold calling (usually calling the entire
phone directory) is probably the most common of all ways
to generate leads. However, the problem with cold
calling is that it takes a lot of time, and hence the
Return on Investment on the time and resources spent is
actually quite poor. Cold calling though, will be
more helpful if you use it as an invitation to an event,
rather than trying to secure a 1-to-1 appointment with a
stranger.
-
Direct
Mail. Whether you are mailing brochures or doing
mass e-mailing, you can reach out to many people in a
short span of time. The downside again is most of
the recipients tend to throw your information into the
trash can, or delete your e-mail the moment they got it.
However, studies show that if you can combine a direct
mail campaign with a phone call, you are likely to get a
lot better responses.
-
Trade
shows, exhibitions and conventions. These are
great events to meet a lot of potential customers,
resellers and partners. However, trade shows and
exhibitions are expensive events, and there's no
guarantee of the quality of the attendees. There
are exhibitors who collected a lot of leads of which
none of them lead to any sale.
-
Create
your own event or roadshow. Rather than
participating in trade shows, exhibitions and
conventions, some companies find it cheaper to organise
their own events or roadshows instead. To do so,
you will need a strong organising team to put together
the event, AND to get qualified prospects to attend the
event.
-
Advertise. If you have the financial muscle,
advertising in the right media will give you exposure to
the right target audience. However, there are less
leads generated from advertising as compared to cold
calling or direct mailing on a dollar-to-dollar
comparison. The good thing though, is that
advertising can generate better brand positioning, and
make prospects more willing to respond to your cold
calls and direct mails.
So how do
we synergise all the above?
Depending
on your budget and how much control you have over your sales
and marketing initiatives, there are different lead
generation combinations for different sales teams.
If your
main lead generation methodology is to make cold calls, just
like what the financial planning and executive recruitment
industries are doing, what you can do is to compliment this
with a little direct mailing and events organising.
My
personal financial planner in Singapore sends out periodical
newsletters by e-mail, informing her current and future
customers of the latest insights on what could affect your
financial wealth. In case you are wondering if she has
lots of time to do the writing, she actually didn't do the
writing at all. All she did was to copy-and-paste or
attach the financial articles written by the experts, and
send them out. And people responded to her mailings!
In
addition, because she sends out high-quality articles, she's
been perceived as an "expert" too. Even though she
didn't write them, she knows where to find them. That
somehow gave her prospective customers more confidence in
her, and are more willing to meet up with her. On top
of that, she gets lots of referrals since her prospective
customers know they can benefit from receiving her e-mails.
It is also
well-known that executive recruiters need to search for
candidates via cold-calling. Now, there are many
executive recruitment firms that have diversified into
executive coaching, career development training and other
workshops targeted at their targeted candidates.
If you
have already spent a bomb to participate in a tradeshow or
convention, you may want to advertise further to tell more
prospects that they can find you at which Booth at the
event. For the really "hot" prospects, you can even
host a dinner after hours and firm up the relationship.
In a
nutshell, while we can see the pros and cons of different
approaches to generate leads, the key thing is NOT to rely
on just one of them. If these approaches were to work
in tandem, you can expect your number of qualified leads
grow exponentially. And if you have the right skills and
attitude, expect your sales to increase drastically as well.
If you would like to re-strategise your lead generation
approaches, e-mail
info@directions-consulting.com or call +86-136 7190 2505
or Skype:
cydj001 and arrange to buy me a mocha. All
information shall be kept in confidence.
About PsycheSelling.com
Sales... ...the
lifeblood of a company, a matter of "life and death",
survival or extinction. Indeed, something that needs
to be studied, applied and re-modified consistently.
Yet today,
-
many companies still don't have a coherent approach as
to how they can generate more sales and achieve better
margins;
-
many sales people are still lying to their customers so
that they can meet their targets at the end of the
month;
-
many customers are still waiting ethical and
professional sales people to help them find out their
real needs, and provide solutions that work
Psyche-Selling TM
is set up so that companies and sales people can make
healthy profits and STILL provide genuine solutions to
customers.
Psyche-Selling TM
would like to create an environment where customers can
trust sales people to give them what they want, and NOT be
pushed with all kinds of products and services. In
return, customers will become loyal fans of these ethical
and professional sales people, and repay them many fold for
the long-term.
Psyche-Selling TM
will not rest, until the above is achieved. Not just
in China. Not just in Asia. But everywhere where
buying and selling takes place.
Psyche-Selling TM
is a wholly-owned brand of
Directions Management Consulting Pte Ltd
that specialises in the field of improving sales performance
by enhancing the performance of the entire sales team.
Apart from the regular "selling skills training",
Psyche-Selling TM conducts pre- and
post-training analysis, interviews, monitoring and reviews,
working closely with managers and even senior management, to
deliver real improvements in sales leadership and
performance.
Hence, Psyche-Selling
TM would like to be known as the preferred
choice of outstanding and remarkable clients, and pride
ourselves as such. We will also be continuing to
assist our clients achieve greater heights in 2009 and
beyond.
Enquiries and suggestions,
pls. e-mail
info@psycheselling.com or visit
www.psycheselling.com
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