Salespeople always strive to show the prospect how they are different from their competitors by talking about competitive pricing, quality service, and their years of experience.

Your prospects have no way of knowing who has the best solution for them. It is up to us as salespeople to help them discover and understand why our product or service is a good fit for them.

The first step is to find out how we can specifically match our products with a prospect's need for that particular product. That means we have to ask them questions. (One study actually shows that after they had decided not to buy, 83% of prospects cited Don't think the salesperson understood my business as the reason they had not bought!) We must ask questions in order to better understand their specific needs and wants, and to show how we are different.

If you can discover what your prospect's needs are and the best way to implement a solution for them, you will almost always overcome your competition.

A firm understanding of a problem coupled with a great solution is worth a lot more than competitive pricing, quality service, and years of experience. This is how you can differ from your competition – which sets you up as the obvious choice and makes you a valuable asset instead of the same choice among many options.

© Sandler Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

Jeremy Rawitz Sales Strategy Corp.

jr@salesstrategycorp.com