How to deal with a prospect when he refers to competition during a sales call?
Friends, this is a very common sales situation. A prospect quite often likes to talk good things about your competitor. There may be different objectives behind this. The prospect might genuinely have a good opinion about the competition product. He may be wanting to challenge you and want to get more information about your product. He may want to validate his information about competition from you. He may even want to get some extra discount by telling you that he is already in contact with your competitor. Any of these situations may be present there. But you need to take his comments neutrally and don’t get panic about it. Do not speak bad or malign your competitor In front of a prospect ever. I advise that your approach need to be as follows:
Do not reject or contradict prospect’s opinion even if as per your information he is wrong,rather you must affirm what he says and move ahead in discussion. You should Say, “Mr. Prospect you are right, ABC pvt ltd is very good company” and then proceed to talk about the strengths of your product.
If the prospect insists on comparing your product with competition, there is no harm in it. You have an opportunity to position your product rightly. You must give him a complete comparative chart. Highlight all those areas where your product is superior. Talk specifically what all features in your product are better than competition.
In case your product is inferior in certain features to competition, do not hesitate to acknowledge it and move ahead in discussion and emphasize about the other strengths of your product and your company. Do not argue with prospect on competitor’s product.
