Sales and Marketing Technique for Selling Against Competitors That Have Similar Products to Yours

Sales and marketing techniques can sometimes fail when you are trying to sell a product or service that is similar to those of your competitors. Try this technique that actually uses that similarity in a way that makes your product stand out from the rest.

You can use the ideas here to make your products and services look more impressive than the competition on all your marketing literature, mail-shots, and all electronic mail-outs. The technique will make your sales appointment and cold calls more effective by giving you a really great reason for calling a prospect that will help you keep them listening.

When it comes to your sales pitch you can use this selling technique to sell the benefits of your product while being positive about the buyer’s current or past purchases. And all the above sales and marketing techniques work even though your products and services are very similar to those of your competitors.

Start by identifying all the benefits that your products or services have that your competitors do not have. If your competitors sell similar products to you, the benefits unique to your products may be small and very specific. That doesn’t matter, list them all, they will be very useful when putting this technique into action.

Your sales and marketing literature should highlight how good both yours and the competitor’s products are. You cannot be negative about a product or service that is very similar to the one that you sell. You may have heard the sales rule: Do not be negative about your competitors. I agree with this and your marketing should point out the positives of your product without directly criticising competitors. You can do this by sounding positive about the competition and saying how good it is. Then show how much more your product will do for the buyer.

For example, your service might do exactly what your competitor’s does, and there may be very little difference. So you highlight how good your competitors are and how you can provide a service that is just as good. Then you highlight the one selling point that you have that makes you different to the others in the market.

This could be a lower price, faster response time, better payment terms, or any other benefit that you have that the competitors don’t. It doesn’t matter how small you think this benefit is because you are offering everything else that others offer plus this additional benefit.

You can use this sales and marketing technique when sending mail-shots, electronic mail-outs, and in all your advertising. Show how good your competitor’s product is. The more you hype-up what the alternative products offer, the better it makes your product look, because your product does everything the others do and then that bit more.

The sales and marketing technique can be incorporated into your sales appointment pitch as the reason why your prospect should listen to your call, and why they should meet with you. The most important line of an appointment setting call is the reason you are calling the prospect. This is the line that will grab the prospect’s attention and motivate them to listen to your call. Add this sales and marketing technique to your sales appointment and cold calling scripts and give yourself an advantage over the competition.

Even in your sales pitch you can use this selling technique. You are saying to the sales prospect: I can offer you everything you’re getting now, and you have already said you are happy with that. Plus I can give you this additional benefit that you are not getting now. It gives you an edge, just as you are highlighting the edge that your product has. What makes this sale technique so effective is that it allows you to complement your competitors while helping to sell the benefits of your sales proposal.

This sales and marketing technique will help you to be more successful at every stage of the sales process. It works to overcome one of the most difficult problems for sales people who sell a product with few unique selling points. It is well worth spending the time to identify those unique differences that your products have, that you can use to make this technique work.

By Stephen Craine