Competing With Customers

You know you're a bad cook -- but if I tell you your cooking stinks, you may get offended. Same with your spouse. You hate his or her cooking, but you better not catch your neighbor spreading the word on the culinary deficit in your kitchen.

Keep this in mind the next time your prospect criticizes the internal organization, especially when that organization is your competitor. Make it part of your  "no competitor bashing" policy.

In many IT sales, especially application development and systems integration, you are competing with your prospect's internal development group. In these scenarios, the prospective organization is considering their internal group, outsourcing the work to you, or not doing the work at all.

Listen in on this sales call.

Sales rep:  What's your plan to solve your Help Desk problem?

Prospect:  I thought we could do it in-house, but our internal organization just doesn't get customer service. They have a long way to go, and my initiative has huge executive visibility, so my solution has to be stellar. That's why I'm thinking of going outside.

Sales rep:  You are correct about your internal group. They are far too insulated to ever do this right. You shouldn't even consider using them for such an important project.

It's great to validate your prospect's thinking, but be careful in this case. If you directly, or even indirectly, criticize the prospect's organization, it may indeed be an accurate analysis, but it is sure to put a bullet through your own foot.

However, it's certainly acceptable to help your prospect see the pros and cons of the situation. For more on this topic, check out Nigel Edelshain's blog post, "Don't be a Sales Person."