Selling Against Goliath plus articles and information on Sales Selling Against Goliath? How to Take on the Big Guys and Win By Dave Stein Stefen Wisniewski Jaguars Jersey , Author of How Winners Sell If you sell for a smaller pany that petes against the big guys, the age-old story of David and Goliath might e to mind. In this story, the giant, Goliath, was beaten in a fight by the small boy, David (later to bee King David), because of the boy's ability to outsmart the giant. However, in today's hyperpetitive, risk-averse, buyers' market, it's Goliath that often has the advantage. If you're the David in this scenario, read on. (By the way, if you're Goliath Jared Odrick Jaguars Jersey , you may want to see what David is planning...) When a sales team loses, whether they sell for the small pany or the larger one, for that matter, it's for one of two reasons: They didn't properly qualify the opportunity, or they were outsold by the petition. There is no third alternative. Let's take a look at these two outes and explore specifically how to improve your effectiveness when selling against a much larger petitor. Qualis The word qualification shares the root, qualis, with the word quality. Qualification is the process through which we determine if it is worth our time and effort to continue to pursue a sales opportunity. Qualification is a process rather than a one-time event. It determines the quality of an opportunity. That means you don't qualify your sales prospect only once, when initial contact is made. You'll need to qualify vigilantly and unendingly. The reason? There are many. Buyers have been known to mislead sellers when they are losing. Things change during the course of the evaluation. In fact, these days, things change a lot, often. Budgets disappear. Influencers take on other responsibilities. Buyers who say they'll buy from a smaller pany-no problem-feel different tomorrow. Every pany must have a set of appropriate qualification criteria by which they determine (1) whether or not to pursue business and (2) how to pursue it. For most panies, these criteria will differ somewhat for each product or service they offer as well by geography, petition and market. When you are qualifying your prospect Dan Skuta Jaguars Jersey , you are asking them and yourself many of the same questions again and again, such as: Who is the real buyer, the person who is going to make the final decision? When are they going to buy? What are they going to buy? Why are they going to buy? Where in their pany is the order going to get signed? Does our product fit their requirements? What is the decision process? Who is the petition? How will they pay for what it is that I am selling? What is my unique value? Why are they going to buy from me? And many more Qualification criteria for smaller panies who pete against the big guys must contain questions about the prospect's buying preferences. For example, you need to ask yourself, "What evidence do I have that the prospect will do, or even more importantly, has already done business with a pany of our size?" Also you'll need to know what guidelines they must follow in terms of suppliers' pany size, revenues or financial viability. (You may think your pany is in great shape, since you have a team of savvy venture capitalists who not only have invested in your pany, but also sit on your board of directors. That may not be of any value to the CFO of a conservative manufacturing pany. In fact it may hurt your cause.) You can read a lot more about qualification in chapters 9 & 10 in my book How Winners Sell. Does Size Matter? It's hard to ask these questions, but it is irresponsible not to. You want to be certain that if you meet or exceed all the prospect's requirements, that size-for size's sake-does not matter. You may have the best product, innovative implementation services Bernard Pierce Jaguars Jersey , mitted people, stellar customer satisfaction levels, top product quality, most respected investors or anything else that you consider of value, but if size matters, little else will measure up. And if size does matter, and you can't convince your prospect fairly quickly that it shouldn't, you're out of there-and quickly on to another opportunity. You'll need to be careful here. Sometimes the size issue is less obvious. For example, your prospect may have a requirement that a vendor install and implement a demand chain management system in twenty-five plants within a year's time. They may have no specific issue with vendor size, but do have a legitimate business requirement that is directly related to your size. And if you are a smaller supplier, without pre-established partnerships with service firms who are capable of delivering the service levels required for that size deal, your chances of winning are remote. What all this means is that there are certain opportunities for which you should not pete, because you can't win them. Sorry Mike Brown Jersey , but that's a fact. If you do spend time trying to win business that you can't win because your pany is too small, you are squandering time and resources from those opportunities you can and deserve to win. So They're Qualified. Now What Do You Do? Here is where petitive selling es into play. You're going to need to influence your prospect's decision criteria, so that the perceived value of your petitor's size as well as other size-related capabilities are diluted, neutralized or, in the best case, seen as a disadvantage. Many salespeople are austomed to highlighting a petitor's weaknesses. In the situations where you are peting against a bigger pany, you will (professionally and subtly) attack their strength. Here is a simple, well-used example. Let's say I sell for a smaller enterprise software pany and I am up against a major player. Based upon preferences and needs of the buyers, I may decide to use the "small-fish-in-a-big-pond". Cheap Jerseys From China Cheap NFL Jerseys Cheap Jerseys Wholesale Jerseys China Wholesale NFL Jerseys Wholesale Jerseys
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