By Garrett Hollander,

• The trap of saying nothing – “I’ve seen salespeople say nothing (or next to nothing… something like; ‘Oh. Okay. I understand.’). And I’ve done this myself and I always feel stupid and like I’ve actually missed an opportunity somehow. That’s because I have missed an opportunity by avoiding the topic of discussion.”
• Trash-talking the competition – “Or, worse, salespeople see mention of a competitor as an opportunity to go after them. [A salesperson might] say; ‘Oh, wow, okay. That’s interesting, because they’ve been having a lot of trouble in the past year. They have been bleeding people and I hear that their service isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.’ Yikes. This is called disparaging the competition, and it’s always the wrong thing to do.”

Like most sellers who have been in the sales game a while, you’ve probably been in competitive situations where a competitor has been deceptive and classless when speaking of you. It happens all the time, but it’s easily countered – not with disparaging words, but by showing how reliable and trustworthy you are as a company.

I took the opportunity to ask some of our key Sales team management how they respond when a B2B sales prospect mentions that they are looking at a competitor. Their responses were very revealing.

Help Your B2B Sales Prospects Vet the Competition with a List of Questions They Should Ask

When I spoke with our Sales Director, Melanie Knight, she mentioned that she almost always sends over a document that we created outlining questions that prospects should ask when engaging a Lead Generation vendor. In this situation, we are seen as a consultative vendor who doesn’t shy away from competitors – a vendor who will actually arm the prospect with the right information to help the prospect vet out other companies.

Why don’t others do this? It’s simple. Create a list of questions that your prospects should have in tow when speaking with another vendor.

Melanie also mentioned that she never says anything negative about the competitor. She might instead position SalesStaff as a superior option with a statement like, “Oh yes. We know of ABC Lead Gen. They’re actually one of our closest competitors in terms of service offering. Not a bad company at all, but here are a few things that we do a little bit differently (and maybe a little bit better)…”

Don’t Act Overly Concerned

I also had a chance to discuss this topic with our Vice President of Sales, Walter Snoddy. He advises that if a sales rep shows an air of anxiety at the mention of a competitor, it can be perceived as weakness. Snoddy says, “Don’t run from the conversation, but don’t dwell on it either. If you find yourself talking about a competitor, always take the high road by avoiding trash talk. Simply speak about your similarities and position differences as advantages.”