Know Yourself, Know Your Competitor and More Customers will Know You
What is your competitive advantage?
I love that question because it gives me an immediate understanding of a sales reps grasp of their own offerings and provides a small perspective into their understanding of their competitors.
The answer to that question can be key in some cases in determining the reasons for the success or failure of an individual sales rep or an entire sales team.
Let’s take an example from the oft in the news automobile industry. I will qualify all of this by saying I do not and have not ever sold cars. This is an example to illustrate a point.
If I only sold new Ford F150 pickups I would consider it critical to my success to understand everything I could about feature packages, engine choices, trim levels and available options so I could match the needs of my prospective client with the best combination of features that would serve his needs and what I had on the lot.
I would also want to understand what I had in inventory, what my competitors have, and what I could get my hands on in a reasonable amount of time to satisfy a customer request.
Next, for me, would be to talk to my service department and get an understanding of the vehicle from a service perspective. What parts tend to break more often? What should my client keep an eye on to avoid costly repairs? Are there any specific problems with certain engines, transmissions or trim levels?
I would also study the commercials to understand what the Ford marketing department is hanging its hat on when trying to entice the consumer to buy their trucks. Where it makes sense, I would blend their message with mine to leverage the ground work Ford has already done.
I would also need to know why my new F150 and the depreciation it would take as soon as it rolled off the lot was a better value for my customer than last years model, or any other used Ford truck still on the road. If I only sell new Ford trucks then a used Ford F150 is every bit as strong a competitor as a Chevrolet, Toyota, Nissan or GMC.
Where, when and why is my new F150 a better value than my competitors’ vehicles. To understand that, I would need as much knowledge about my competitors new trucks as I know about my own, including their used models as well.
Amassing and internalizing all of this information amounts to what could be a strong value add for my prospective truck customer. Even the ones showing up fully armed with internet research.
The more information I have at my disposal to answer questions and eliminate the need for my client to go look somewhere else, the more likely I am to sell a truck.
There are several other factors that go into being a successful rep that I glossed over. Here I am speaking specifically about leveraging what you know into dough.
I ask again, what is your competitive advantage?
Why should I buy your product over your competitors? What value do YOU bring as the representative? Why should I buy my widget from you instead of number one sales guy Dave over there?
Make it easy for me to buy, help me understand the value you bring, and why I should buy from you vs. your competitor and odds are, assuming I believe you and recognize your value, I will buy from you, all other things being equal.
Chinese general Sun Tzu, living some 2,400 years ago, give or take, put it a little differently…
If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.
- Sun Tzu
Or perhaps more concisely put…
Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer.
- Sun-Tzu
Posted in 
