You’re looking for a new approach to your sales: something that will give you that extra edge. Your leading competitor has had tremendous success with a certain type of sales tool. It looks like a pretty good approach, and it’s leading to a lot of sales for them. Maybe you should adopt that same sales tool in your own company! It could help you gain that extra edge you’re looking for!
No. “What’s the competition doing?” is entirely the wrong question to ask when trying to figure out the best way to sell. The secret is not to do what they do. The secret is to do what YOU do, and do it better than anyone else.
Cookie Cutter Approaches
If other companies are having success with a particular sales tool or approach, it’s easy to think that you might as well. After all, you’re selling the same kinds of products and targeting the same demographics. So if it works for them, then why not for you?
Well, for one thing, you’re not your competitors. If you jump on their bandwagon, all you’re really saying is that you’re exactly the same as they are. Their unique and effective sales tool becomes a cookie cutter approach, that everyone starts using exactly the same way.
And since they started using this approach first, you’ll look like a cheap knockoff of them. Why would your customers want to buy from a cheap knockoff, when they can have the original? Borrowing someone else’s effective sales technique is a quick way to sabotage your sales efforts and make yourself entirely forgettable in the minds of your customers.
Setting Yourself Apart
Instead of, “What’s the competition doing?” the question you should be asking is, “What’s the most effective sales approach for our company?” Rather than trying to copy what’s working for your competitors, define exactly what sets you apart from your competitors, and create sales tools that will help you communicate that to your customers.
Create something that your customers aren’t seeing everywhere else. Show them the difference between your products and those of your competitors, and help them understand why yours are the best to meet their specific needs. Give them tactile demonstrations that illustrate the ways in which your product stands out. Is it more durable than what your competitors are selling? Is it more versatile? More specialized? Do you have a wider selection? Play to your strengths.
There is one reason why you might want to ask, “What’s the competition doing?” Knowing what they’re up to can help you distance yourself from them and figure out more ways to set yourself apart. But for the most part, you just shouldn’t worry about how they’re selling. Instead, concentrate on being the best that you can be. Create unique sales tools that will help you stand out and make an impression on your customers. If you’re successful enough, maybe your competitors will start to do it too, and then they’ll look like the cheap knockoffs.
