Outsmarting — not outselling — the competition
The story behind this author's favorite tie illustrates the keys to 'outsmarting' the competition.
I don’t wear ties that often anymore, but I still have a favorite. It is one that was given to me at a restaurant over dinner. Actually, it was tossed at me from across the table. The gentleman I was with was a consultant for a prospect I was pursuing — he represented them through an RFP process. My company was awarded the business, so the consultant and I were celebrating the sale.
After the main course, he took off his tie and gently threw it at me. With a look of bewilderment, I asked him what he was doing. He said, “I’m giving you my tie.”
“Why?” I asked him. “I don’t understand.”
He explained that early on in his career, he won a big sale — it was a huge win. The client gave him his tie during dinner. “I always wanted to do that for someone else,” he told me.
At this point, I was still very confused and said that was an inspiring story, but I still didn’t really understand why he chose to give me the tie. He then said something that I’ll always remember.
“I’m giving you my tie because you had no business winning that sale. The other company was better than yours, but you outsold them. So, that is why I am giving you my tie.”
Reflecting on that night, I don’t feel that I outsold the competition but perhaps I outsmarted the other company. Instead of going through the motions of answering all the RFP questions, I asked the consultant a few simple questions:
- What are your decision-making criteria?
- What do you hope to get out of this?
- How can I help you look good when this process is all over?
According to the author Jeffrey Gitomer, the most powerful qualifying question you can ask is: “How will the decision be made?” He recommends you then follow up by asking, “Then what?” as many times as needed until you understand the whole decision-making process.
Other crucial questions include:
- What is the expected outcome?
- Who do you collaborate with?
- Who will be the main user?
When you shift the focus from your product or service to how the prospect makes his or her decision, your chances of success should greatly improve.
So, back to the tie story. By changing the focus from the RFP to understanding how the consultant was going to make his decision, my strategy changed and was now different from my stronger competitor. The new client was about 10 times larger than our average-sized account, and I got a new tie out of the deal — along with an amusing story and some top-notch confidence.
Curt Vondrasek is a senior vice president at MarshBerry. He can be reached at 630.315.9031 or Curt.Vondrasek@MarshBerry.com. Opinions expressed here are the author’s own.
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