Dealing With Competition
How do you successfully compete for leads and sales at a trade show?
As mentioned in earlier Best Practices postings, trade shows are competitive environments. You have the general competition for the attendee’s attention and financial competition for the attendee’s buying power against ANY other exhibitor. Then, you have the very specific competition against another company that essentially offers the same type of product or service that you do.
In week 8, I discussed attracting attention. Getting the attendee to focus on you ahead of others can make a huge difference in an event’s outcome. However, this isn’t the only way to compete. There are several strategies that you can employ to gain the competitive edge
What are the top competitive strategies?
This information can be employed at trade shows, in your purchased media, in social media posts and in your sales presentations.
Humans make most of their decisions based on comparing two options. A good example would be deciding what to eat for dinner. Think of how many two-option decisions you make:
• Eat out or fix something at home?
• If going out, then fast food or sit down?
• Casual or formal?
You get the point.
So, when a trade show prospect finds competing exhibitors for what they are seeking, what categories do their two-option decisions fall into? Here’s a partial list:
• Brand Preference/Recognition
• Perceived Quality
• Price Range
• Lead Time
• Size of Company
• Years in Business
• Professional Credentials
• Warranties
• Delivery Fees
• Installation Costs
You can add others easily enough.
Here’s how you work it:
1. Identify your competitors at a given event.
2. Review your position relative to them using your self-generated list of two-point comparisons.
3. Learn how to best express your competitive difference so that picking your company would be the obvious decision.
4. Never talk down about a competitor. Only speak to how you are different and let the prospect.
5. Get the prospect’s agreement that the points that make you different are reasons to go with your company and outweigh any that you miss.
This approach helps to generate a more well-rounded decision based on a number of factors and takes the focus off of price as the primary point of comparison.
As mentioned in earlier Best Practices postings, trade shows are competitive environments. You have the general competition for the attendee’s attention and financial competition for the attendee’s buying power against ANY other exhibitor. Then, you have the very specific competition against another company that essentially offers the same type of product or service that you do.
In week 8, I discussed attracting attention. Getting the attendee to focus on you ahead of others can make a huge difference in an event’s outcome. However, this isn’t the only way to compete. There are several strategies that you can employ to gain the competitive edge
What are the top competitive strategies?
This information can be employed at trade shows, in your purchased media, in social media posts and in your sales presentations.
Humans make most of their decisions based on comparing two options. A good example would be deciding what to eat for dinner. Think of how many two-option decisions you make:
• Eat out or fix something at home?
• If going out, then fast food or sit down?
• Casual or formal?
You get the point.
So, when a trade show prospect finds competing exhibitors for what they are seeking, what categories do their two-option decisions fall into? Here’s a partial list:
• Brand Preference/Recognition
• Perceived Quality
• Price Range
• Lead Time
• Size of Company
• Years in Business
• Professional Credentials
• Warranties
• Delivery Fees
• Installation Costs
You can add others easily enough.
Here’s how you work it:
1. Identify your competitors at a given event.
2. Review your position relative to them using your self-generated list of two-point comparisons.
3. Learn how to best express your competitive difference so that picking your company would be the obvious decision.
4. Never talk down about a competitor. Only speak to how you are different and let the prospect.
5. Get the prospect’s agreement that the points that make you different are reasons to go with your company and outweigh any that you miss.
This approach helps to generate a more well-rounded decision based on a number of factors and takes the focus off of price as the primary point of comparison.