Your #1 Competition - May Not Be Who You Think it is.

Let’s try something here, I will bet you get the answer to this question wrong: Who is your #1 competition?

Answer: ________________

WRONG!

Here is what I am thinking: Our industry is in for a big wake up call. Our industry is so busy looking for the competitor within that we do not see that we are about to have our butts handed to us by an outside force. WAKE UP! In my humble opinion, here is the real problem:___________ . When I said that, most people jumped right to I.T. and maybe their response to that was, “got it covered.”

WRONG AGAIN! - Electrical contractors? - WRONG! - Interior Design and business services and office management? -               NOPE, Not even close.

Okay, enough with the suspenseful game play. Your number one competition is most likely, “good enough.” We are constantly hearing “eh, good enough.” I see a poorly aligned and calibrated projector in a sports bar, so when I have the chance to talk to the owner and I ask him about it. I offer to make some adjustments and even point him in the direction of a Pro-AV solutions provider who can do it proper and give him a much higher quality install. His answer: “eh, it’s good enough.”  Think about it. How often do you encounter this phrase? When you are proposing a video conferencing solution with a proper PTZ camera and controls and the customer substitutes in the PC and Logitech desktop camera. When you explain the difference in depth of field and other features their answer is: “eh, it’s good enough.”

So how do we address: “eh, it’s good enough”? Here are my three (stories) strategies for addressing my #1 competition, “good enough”:

1. “I Am So Beautiful to Me, Can’t I See”

2. One of the Greatest Salesmen I’ve Known

3. The Puppy Dog and the Soda Machine

This week I will cover Strategy (Story) #1, next week I will get into Strategy 2 and then the following week Strategy 3. This week’s strategy story is “I Am So Beautiful to Me, Can’t I See” – This strategy is about the need for the customer knowing that you understand them. It is all about them, not you.

This story part of this goes back to when I was about 8 years old and my brother was about 10. At that age, we spend much of our waking hours on our bicycles. One summer day we were riding around in our cul-de-sac and just enjoying the day. My brother started singing. In his normal goofy, “hey, pay attention to me” way, he belted out, “I am so beautiful to me, can’t I see… I am everything I hoped for. I am everything I need. I am so beautiful.” Taking it up a few octaves, he hits the next line, “to me.” As we were riding, he wanted so badly to make sure the attention was on him that he was willing to take his silliness to the limit. It was about him, no matter what. To the point where he went hands-free and interlaced his fingers and put his interwoven downward facing hands under his chin, framing his face (as if showing the world his beauty). At that moment, THE CRASH. What is the point of this story? The customer will do whatever it takes to make it all about them. They will even look ridiculous, crash and burn or accept substandard solutions. All as long as the focus is on them, not you.

The late great Steven Covey wrote (in his 7 Habits of Highly Effective People [Habit 5]) seek first to understand, then to be understood. A customer needs to be understood before they can really hear (or understand) anything you have to say. Sometimes, their “eh, it’s good enough”, is a defensive mechanism used because they really do not believe their motivating factors. What is that drives them. A quick way to understand them is to ask questions that get to these subjects. What is their role, what are their interests, values, expectation and requirements? This can be made in the Acronym RIVER (borrowed from the book Delivering Knock Your Socks Off Service from Performance Research Associates). Or come up with your own acronym that covers the important things that drive your customer. Once you have done this, then you can walk them into developing a solution that makes better sense together. Help them become the hero according to their RIVER point. Then tie these into Strategy #2.

Strategy 2 (next week) - will be on the greatest sales person I have ever known – I will tell you about one of the characteristics of the late and very incredible Bill Sharer. This trait is about the difference between two scenarios. The first scenario is about telling a prospect what you have and them becoming a customer because they consider what you say. The second and better scenario is about teaching a valued colleague and them becoming a loyal partner for life because you added value and enriched them. Bill was a master at the latter and he mentored and coached me to be a sales person that adds this type of value to my customers rather than, just moving product. Come back and read the details on this strategy/story.