2/26/2025-Competitive selling

The best path to take is to probe early – and often – about what the prospect thinks of your offering compared to others being considered.

"I’m gonna do business with you OR Acme…I haven’t decided yet."

Before you excitedly recite your value proposition to differentiate your proposal to the buyer who said that, do some strategic probing and qualifying. The insights you learn will help you frame your VP and inform your next moves.

Focus on getting your customers to tell you the truth about where you stand versus the competition, and you’ll be one giant step closer to climbing your last hill for that deal.

Today, ask some of these competitive selling probing questions in your pitch meetings:
1. What do you like most about our offering versus others you’re considering?

2. What aren’t you getting from that you need?

Prepare for a competitive discussion before your meetings, especially when you’re down the funnel and ready to close.

However, you should also probe early in the sales cycle to identify other ways the prospect could spend their money.

Always probe for info about competitive threats!

Some of your best sales will come when you beat out another foe. Hard-nosed selling is involved when you mount a case as to why your prospect should give you the bag of cash and not the other guy.

In market-share battles, where there is a defined number of vendors battling for a set amount of seats on the bus, you must talk frequently about how your offering stands up against prospect expectations, and the competitive field.

The best path to take is to probe early – and often – about what the prospect thinks of your offering compared to others being considered.

You may receive vague answers from the prospect, but don’t let that disarm you or make you take your foot off the gas.

Keep probing. Keep qualifying.

This all leads to preparing competitive questions ahead of your meetings and integrating them into your agenda so you can have proactive and honest discussions. The signal that proves whether you are proactively probing and qualifying customers about their options is your close rate – a low close rate means you’re hearing a lot of "No’s" …and you’re hearing them late in the cycle.

Keep pushing to find the truth about you versus the other folks.

In this YT Short, the always enthusiastic Alex Hormozi highlights service as one of your most important differentiators.

When pitted against a competitor in an all-or-nothing battle, probe your prospect with this question: "Describe the service expectations you need and want."

Whatever they say, agree to it and make them commit because of it.