Selling your weaknesses? It's easy to do!

In a competitive marketplace, it's easy to become overly sensitive to perceived weak spots in your product or service. This often happens when a competitor offers something a bit different or newer than what your company offers, and seems to be having some success with it. You become focused on what you can't do; not what you can do. Suddenly, your sales pitch and marketing materials begin to give more attention to the topics where you're weak, because you feel the topics must be addressed. When that happens, you're only strengthening your competitor's position. Even if your revised sales tactics win you new business that might have gone to the competitor, customers will analyze your product or service based on the aspects you promoted. When you focus on the areas where you're weak, you create a sure path to a dissatisfied customer and perhaps even some negative publicity.

So how do you deal with the competitor who's found a chink in your armor?

• Make a list of your own key strengths and the competitor's key strengths, being as objective as possible. Be particularly clear about areas that differ.
• Assess whether your competitor's new focus really enhances your own areas of strength, or whether it's more tangential to your company's real mission. Is there a way you can more clearly define your company's mission that will make this new focus a non-issue?
• If your competitor's new focus area doesn't mesh well with your business, and your business still represents a viable market segment, make a conscious decision not to follow the competitor. Shift your role from being a reactor to one of interested observer. Now, think carefully about your competitor's new focus with respect to your chosen market. Would there be some disadvantage (additional costs, staff, equipment, etc.) your market would experience if they chose to go with the competitor's focus? Many 'weaknesses' can be restated as a strength if you do a complete analysis from the customer's perspective!
• If you decide the competitor really has found a chink in your armor, create an action plan that aggressively addresses the real issue, rather than making it a marketing and sales issue. If it's a feature or service you need to add, doing so swiftly but quietly can be very effective. There's more than one way to react quickly. For example, you may be able to create a partnership with another company who already offers the same (or a better!) feature or service offered by the competitor. The objective is to act so quickly that your competitor will suddenly be selling on things that offer no differentiation.
• Increase your focus on the areas where you're strongest, with particular emphasis on those areas that make you different from the competitor. This strategy is the one most likely to keep every customer you initially win. With the level of investment it takes to win each new customer, you want to count on repeat business.
• Be confident in your decision! If you've completed an objective assessment and taken the appropriate action, make sure that confidence shows in every aspect of customer contact. Educate every member of your team about the decision and why it was made. When everyone sings the same tune, your customer will feel like he, too, made the right choice.

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