Competitive Sales Strategies & “Set-Aparts”

Competition plays a peculiar role in a Free Enterprise economic system, especially in the U.S. Since Sales is my business-life, dealing with competition has always been a consideration and frankly, my gut reaction to it is that its a nuisance. Intellectually, however, I recognize that competition has been an essential element behind the successes of U.S. business in the global marketplace. This element is commonly known as “Yankee Ingenuity”. With this in mind, I strive to not give in to my gut-level instincts to address competition as a nuisance and attack them negatively. I’ve heard it said that, in dealing with competition, “If you throw dirt, you’ll lose ground.” Sort of cute, huh? I’m surprised that hasn’t become a more common cliche. Anyway, for me, these have been helpful words of wisdom.


With that said, the question remains, “How does one, effectively, deal with competition in a positive manner?” My default position here has been to look for “set-aparts”.

Before going on, since the term “set-apart” can be used in a number of ways, let me tell you what I have in mind. To me, “set-apart” is more of a Marketing term. Its the sort of thing that you’ll typically find in Marketing materials, as positioning statements, for branding purposes. One of the best definitions I’ve found for this is in an article by Elizabeth Boineau, entitled “Is Your Brand Sending Mixed Messages?”, where she says:

“Your brand platform, or positioning statement, is born of articulating the “set-aparts,” whereby you offer a compelling proposition explaining why your brand should be the choice. The next step is to promise you’ll maintain both brand image and reputation by delivering against all the things you claim make you uniquely qualified to serve the needs of your audience.”

One of the best examples of this, in my experience, comes from my time with Minolta. At that time, I was able to say:

“Do you know that Minolta is so particular about imaging quality that we are one of only two companies in the world who make their own glass, from which we make our own lenses?”

Now, that’s a “set-apart”! More importantly, it was one that I could have a “fire in my belly” about and communicate with sincerity. As a Consultative Sales Professional, that has always been vital to me … to know that what I’m saying about what I’m offering is truly of value to my Customer.

With that in mind, I want to close by noting what I think is the most important “set-apart” for a Sales Professional to offer their Customers. That is the one that you see when you look in the mirror. Of course, that is, uniquely, you. No one else can offer that. However, it is also, uniquely, your responsibility to make sure that this is “truly of value” to your Customer.

How does this match up with your experience, in dealing with competition and in using “set-aparts”? As always, we welcome your sharing your views too!

Sales Gimmicks

Sales gimmicks have always puzzled me. Often, I see some potential educational value in them, for the Sales person, but, almost always, they seem to be counterproductive, in application. During the past week, we’ve been “back home”, in Southern California, for a wedding. Ironically, in what is, for me, a pretty far from “work” setting, I saw a remarkable example of this.


There I was, babysitting my seven month old Grandson (Jake) at the front of a hair and nail salon, while Ruth (my Wife) and Jill (my step-Daughter) were having their hair done. While some concoction was doing its magic on Jill’s hair, she came to sit with Jake and me. As Jill was flipping through a magazine, a woman appeared in the exterior doorway that separated our chairs. Facing Jill, she said something like, “You seemed to be interested in our catalog. Would you like to order some of our products?” As she said this, she pointed at a catalog of cosmetic products that was laying on an end table next to Jill. I won’t mention the cosmetic company’s name but it rhymes with Rave On. Anyway, Jill said she wasn’t interested and the woman responded by saying, “Are you sure? I’m pretty sure I saw you starting to reach for it?” I won’t bore you with the rest of this verbal exchange but it didn’t get any better.

As I reflected on this, I considered that the cosmetic company representative had probably been taught the tactic I observed. My assumption was that the intent of this teaching was to aid a Sales person in initially connecting with a Prospect, if they found them actually showing interest in the company catalog. In this case, the misapplication of the training resulted in a disconnect, as well as a bad taste in Jill’s mouth (and mine) for ever doing any business with that cosmetic company.

In addition to the misapplication of well-intentioned Sales gimmicks, there are those that are simply devious. A good example of this is one that was included in my training for a summer “Sales” job when I was in college. This involved selling vending machine franchises to individuals. The tactic was to hand the Prospect a pen and get them to sign meaningless documents during my presentation so that when it came time to ask them to sign a contract; they’d already be comfortable in signing things for me. Since I always try to take something good from every experience, I suppose I gained in grasping an understanding of the psychology involved with this. Otherwise, I view this as a skill of a Charlatan, not of a Sales person.

And, I guess this last point is my primary objection to the use of Sales gimmicks … they, generally, seem to be the skills of a con artist, not of a business professional. Since my business card says, Consultative Sales Professional, that probably makes me even more sensitive to this. My view of “consultative” involves the aim to sort of “crawl inside the other person’s skin”, to understand their goals and challenges from their perspective and to have a much better understanding of how your company’s offerings can help with that? Manipulating the Prospect doesn’t seem to fit in with this approach very well.

Are there examples of more legitimate and productive Sales gimmicks out there? Please let us know your experience, one way or the other. As always, we welcome your sharing to benefit others.

Comments
 
Justin Hitt Says:


November 18, 2008 at 11:07 am edit

I make a skill of finding unusual sales gimmicks that translate well into the business-to-business selling space, and agree with you about the garbage approaches some managers teach sales people.



Managers and sales people alike seem to miss the attention part of a sales gimmick, it’s not so much for you to attach to your prospect, but instead to get your prospect to contact you (and qualify themselves.)



Thanks for highlighting this problem, I’m certain other observers of these “gimmicks” feel the same way, disgusted.



Best,



Justin

“The Perfect Face” for Inside Sales

“Back in the day”, as TV encroached on the domain where Radio had been dominant, some Radio Stars were unsuccessful in their attempts to transition to become TV Stars. With some, it was said that this was because they had “the perfect face” for radio. In other words, some of those attractive voices didn’t have the eye appeal to match.


As the metamorphosis of Inside Sales has given it a more significant role in Selling, I’ve observed some similar phenomena, though in reverse. I’m not saying, if you’re not a great looking person, you shouldn’t consider Outside Sales and get on the phones right away. I’ve spent the great majority of my fairly successful Sales career in Outside Sales and I’m no Brad Pitt. What I am saying is that you can’t expect to take a good Outside Sales person, put them in an Inside Sales role and expect instant success.

Although I’d had previous involvement with Inside Sales, in its initial, supportive role for Outside Sales, my most significant experience in this arena came from the work I did in the Call Center of a premiere Direct Sales organization. This is where I first observed the phenomena mentioned above. My primary objective in this assignment was to assist this group, as it shifted its emphasis from transactional selling to more of a consultative approach. In doing that, I started by going through the classroom Sales training for new-hires. When it came time to role-play, some experienced “old hands” were brought in from the Call Center. I was matched with one of these “old hands” and I was a bit surprised at my level of discomfort, as I took on the role of the Inside Sales person. When it was the “old hand’s” turn, I noticed that the first thing he did was to roll his chair away from his workstation, put his elbows on his knees, rest his head in his hands and he stared at the floor … not at me, across the room. An “aha moment” for me! I realized that I had brought into that room a set of skills, that I’d honed over the years, that no longer applied because I was no longer able to visually connect with the Prospect.
My “aha moment” in the classroom ended up leading to the area where I was able to make the most significant strides, in developing the consultative selling abilities of this Direct Sales force. When I got to the Sales Floor of the Call Center, of course, I found that some of the Inside Sales people had previous successful experience as Outside Sales people. Within this group, I found that some were managing to succeed in their new environment, while others were “just getting by” and others were failing. The most significant difference I found in these groups had to do with my “aha moment”. Generally, here’s why:

The ones who were failing didn’t recognize why their previously successful approach wasn’t working and they had pretty much given up. With the ones who were “just getting by”, it seemed that they knew what wasn’t working for them anymore but they weren’t sure what to do about it and they were settling for what they could accomplish “in the transactional mode”. Those who were succeeding had become more consultative, in many cases unconsciously, through learning to replace their skills of visual observation with other techniques.

My approach, to start addressing this, was simple. Rather than emphasizing the sense of hearing over the sense of sight, I encouraged the sales people to focus all their senses on the human being who was calling in/being called. I would say, “You see that line of script lighting up on your PC monitor? That’s not just a stream of electrons, that’s a human being. And though they may not use these exact words, they are calling here for HELP! Your job is to learn, as completely as you can, what they need help with, that we can provide. Then, as thoroughly as you can, to communicate what we have to meet their needs and how it will meet their needs.” That turned out to be a great foundation for developing an effective consultative Inside Sales person.

For more on this, I recommend checking http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EIN/is_2008_May_13/ai_n25408211. How have you approached this? What successful methods do you use that you can help others with by sharing?

Comments
 
greg wease Says:


October 7, 2008 at 2:57 pm edit

Gary – great article.

It has been my experience in the technology and media sectors is that many outside sales reps are now required to allocate a certain percentage of their time in the role of an inside sales rep, especially with the advent of social media and on-line collaboration.

grwiram Says:


October 7, 2008 at 3:32 pm edit

Great point, Greg! In addition to these aspects of New Media Sales & Marketing, the current economy necessitates that a Sales Professional equips themselves to be more of a “Utility Player”. The days when Smilin’ ‘n’ Dialin’, for Prospecting, was as close as an Outside Sales person came to doing true Inside Sales work are as passe as the days of the “Smoke-Stacking” sort of Prospecing I mentioned in an earlier post – http://garywiram.wordpress.com/2008/09/20/the-tech-savvy-sales-organization/.

Nick Moreno Says:


October 17, 2008 at 11:35 am edit

Great article… thanks. The “sales foundation” for both inside and outside sales is to uncover a problem that you can “fix” with your product or service. It’s not about the product… it’s all about the solution.

Thanks again.

Nick

Vern Says:


November 7, 2008 at 9:44 am edit

I really liked your aha moment story because it shows a level of awareness that’s not available for many folks, as is clear by the story of what happened to other outside sales people when moved to the phones. I’d suggest that with such awareness, you may want to start a telesales consulting business of your own.

The Pride and Prejudice of Sales

If your business life has involved having the word “Sales” on your business card, you’ve probably had an experience like this:

You’re at a social function, you meet someone and they ask the most common question in that circumstance … “What do you do?” Your response includes the word “Sales” and you, literally, see the other person’s face go slack. As this happens, you know that your new acquaintance is envisioning some huckster, in white buck shoes, palming off some old rattle trap to some rube in a used car lot.

Of course, as a Sales Professional, I’m perturbed by this Prejudice and when I can, I try to dispel it through education. However, I’ve found that this isn’t just an occasional, individual bias. It seems to be systemic in our culture. Since I only minored in Psychology in college, I can’t be sure but I think the fact that I too connect with the imagined “huckster in white bucks”, affirms my view.

So, what is a Sales Professional to do about this? I suppose becoming an evangelist, marching onward to “fix” this wrong-headed notion, is an option. What I do and what I recommend is to take the flip-side of this weakness (Prejudice) and make it a strength (Pride). In fact, I think this is one of the most important foundational steps you can take for yourself, as a Sales Professional and for your Sales Organization.

There is a legitimacy to the Sales function in business. It isn’t “palming off.” That is hucksterism. The legitimate process, in very abbreviated terms, goes something like this:

Learning a Prospects challenges, from their perspective.

Understanding what you can offer to meet those challenges.

Communicating the value of that offer to the Prospect.

As a Consultative Sales Professional, the process is typically far more complex and requires many well-honed skills. And its this that I get “on fire” about. Its where I find the flip-side to Prejudice … its where I find the Pride of being a Sales Professional. For me, having that foundational Pride has been pivotal to my success. And, it has been integral to my work, as a Sales Leader, in developing others.

Over time, some aspects of the Sales role change. Presently, we’re seeing this as the result of telemarketing, inside sales, eCommerce, etc. Regardless, I believe it will remain true that any Sales Person or Sales Organization instilled with Pride in the Sales Profession will greatly outperform one that does not have this foundational characteristic. My recommendation is that you make it a regular touch-point in your personal development strategy and that of your Sales Organization.

Do you agree? If so, please share your ideas on the most effective ways you’ve found to do this.

Comments








Nick Moreno Says:











September 27, 2008 at 3:49 pm edit









100% Agree!









Thanks Gary!









I think this is why we use the word “Professional” so often… Professional Sales Career, Professional Sales Training, Professional Sales Rep. Ever hear of a “Professional” Lawyer?









Nice read!









Nick

Sales Incentive Programs – Maximizing Impact

WIIFM? What’s In It For Me? That question is at the heart of the buying motive. Whether we like to admit or not, its also at the heart of human nature. That means, not only is it at the heart of the buying motive, its at the heart of the selling motive too. So, regardless of a Sales Professional’s protestations that they’re really focused on their development and mastering things like strategic/complex selling, silently, they’re asking WIIFM? I’m, certainly, like that. My business card says, “Consultative Sales Professional” and I am but put an added incentive on the table and “I’m in baby!” And I’m perfectly happy to let others know of my success in competing for incentives. Wanna see the limited edition engraved marble Inner Circle plaques I have for each of my 11 years at Minolta?!

So, all that’s necessary is to play to that human nature … when Sales aren’t where you want them, just feed the WIIFM instincts of the Sales People then sit back and wait for the results. Right?! Well, sort of. Yes, you can grow your Sales along with growing the reward for the performing Sales Person through such feeding but I think, far too often, Sales Incentive Programs miss out on growth opportunities that can be much more far reaching and have significantly greater lasting power. Here’s what I have in mind:

Not long ago, I got to work with the Direct Sales Force of a company whose products are aimed at improving Health & Fitness. I found that, in the Direct Sales environment, Sales Incentive Programs are utilized with much greater frequency than I’ve experienced in Field Sales organizations. I, also, found that, this particular company set aside a significant budget amount in order to, at Christmas, purchase and distribute gift items to lower income families in their local community … no doubt, benefiting the Health & Fitness of that community. My suggestion was to tie the Sales Incentive Programs to the programs that benefit the community. Instead of the top Sales Performers getting to go home with the latest Nintendo has to offer, why not offer them Paid Time Off to represent the company in its community service? There’s still positive impact on Sales and some immediate needs in the community are still ministered to but, in between, there’s a lot of added growth.

But, what if you’re not a large company with its own sizeable Direct Sales Force? It strikes me that, even for a small to medium sized company, a similar approach can be taken. Is there a local business organization that would be beneficial for your company to join but you’re struggling to justify the budget for membership? How about adding to the justification by using the membership as an incentive, allowing Top Performing Sales People to represent the company, as they and your company grow in the process?

So, what do you think of this approach? What’s been your most effective approach to Sales Incentive Programs? Please let me know so it can be shared with others.

Comments

sensetives Says:


September 24, 2008 at 6:18 am edit

There is (unfortenately) not just one way. My experience is that you have to make a mix to have a succesfull incentive program. Not every one gets satiesfied bij doing something for the community. Leave a choice. Because the program has to motivate every individual but not everybody has the same values.

grwiram Says:


September 24, 2008 at 6:44 am edit

Thanks for your comment. I, absolutely, agree. The suggestion I made for community service, as a reward, would work best as an option. You are right that a good program should motivate everyone involved. I just want to encourage being as creative as possible, in doing that, to maximize the resulting value.