>> 5 minute read
If you’ve ever been in a sales role (yes, this includes being a business owner) then you’ve probably heard you should never say anything negative about your competition, or at least, what you think is your competition.
If you’re confident in your product, you know your competitor’s product sucks anyways. Your product or service is superior in some way that outweighs anything they can do, whether it’s professionalism, punctuality, reliability, or price. After all, if you don’t have a selling point that is better than the other guy’s then what are you selling for?
So why can’t I tell my prospect or client why I rule and they drool? It’ll definitely steer them away from buying into their hunk of shit. Won’t it?
No. Probably not. In fact, you might have steered them away from you if you did.
Here are 6 brutally honest reasons not to trash-talk your competition.
1) You’re gonna look like an asshole.
No one wants to work with an asshole. Your client is talking to you about how you can help them. Telling them how your competitor can’t help them doesn’t do you any service besides showing your client that you’d rather put others down than build yourself up.
If your services are as good as you claim them to be, you won’t need to tear down your competitor or even mention them.
After all, who wants to work with someone who badmouths anyone they disagree with? If you badmouth your competitor, I can only assume what you say about customers to your friends.
2) You’ll come off as selfish.
The number one trick to selling is providing value to the client. Value comes in all different forms. Value to one client might be the price while to another client it may be professionalism and to a third, reliability.
How can you provide value to your client? Not, how can you take away value from your competitor? Telling a customer what a shitty job your competitor does makes you come off as self-righteous and narcissistic. They know that your confidence is built on perception and not by presentation. They can smell that bullshit.
3) You’ll show you’re insecure.
If you’re truly confident in the quality of work you provide or whatever your main selling point is, you don’t need to siphon the confidence from your competitors — you have enough in you already.
If you lack confidence, you’ll be able to talk more about how the other guys can’t do a perfect job than be able to show how great you are.
Think about this the next time you hear someone gossiping about someone. Pay attention to what they say. Are they saying something negative about someone? What does that make you feel about them? Probably that they’re an asshole (see #1). This person is probably building themselves up by tearing someone else down. Anyways, you can tell they’re doing this. So can your customers — and they’re on high-alert when being sold to.
4) Your trash-talk will overshadow your value.
Let’s pretend you’re confident in your work (if you talk negatively about your competitors, you’re either a shitty salesperson or your work sucks, but we’ll get to that). If you’re confident in what you do, then why would you need to tear down someone else? You have the best damn services in the market.
Even if you are the best at your selling point, you might be absolutely terrible at another. Clients complain about things that seem trivial to you like being on time, having more open and structured communication, or asking you to do things that weren’t in the agreement. Either way, you’ve probably dealt with some pissy clients.
But instead of remedying those issues, you’d puff your chest out in front of a new prospect and say, “Well, they’re not going to do this for you, but I will. You should be happy with what I provide. You’re going to regret it if you go with them.”
See #2. It’s not about what you are the best at or what your competitor sucks-ass at. It’s what your client wants.
5) You can look like an idiot.
One of the biggest things I see is business owners and salespeople trash-talking a competitor’s work. Here’s the thing though — you don’t know anything about the client/business agreement. You don’t know what they’re paying for.
If you’re a lawn care business owner, you might find yourself talking about a crew that doesn’t edge where the grass meets pavement or that the lawn is full of weeds. But what you don’t know is that the client is fully aware but literally only wants lawn mowing. That’s it.
So, you’re talking crap about something the client doesn’t even want the business owner to do?
Another example. One web developer starts talking negatively about how a competitor built a website. Maybe the content on it is thin and weak. Maybe the website lacks a decent amount of pages for what the client offers. But that developer really has no idea what the client paid for or what was agreed upon. They also have no idea what expectations were already set or what was clearly communicated.
This can land you in some hot water if you’re prospecting a potential client that has your competitor already working for them. Such as a site audit or quote.
6) You’re not going to look like a professional.
Getting quotes and estimates from professionals where they don’t worry about their competition shows me they are professional and are confident in their work. That means they’re professionals in the industry.
You can tell when someone is a professional by their presentation. They don’t need to badmouth their competitors. All they need to do is tell them how their product will achieve their goals.
Professionals care more about the solutions to the client’s problem. Amateurs care about how they look in front of the client.
Your prospects and clients see through all of this.
Most importantly, you’ll simply come off as unprofessional. Professionals aren’t assholes, selfish, insecure, negative, or idiots.
Professionals are kind, selfless, confident, positive, and intelligent. Just being these things are going to close the deal. Everyone wants to work with one of these people, not the previous. Talking negatively about competitors is a really good way to showcase just how much of an amateur you are.
Got a problem with these? Fight me.
Just kidding, I’ll lose.