Recently, I was buying my wife a new car. I had done my research and had gone to several dealerships. In a very short visit to one, once we had gone through the pleasantries and I told the sales person what I was looking for, he asked if I had shopped around. I replied that I had. He then said, “Show me the offers from my competition, I will beat all of them.” I replied, “Look you don’t understand, I’m not necessarily looking for the best deal, but I am looking for a few things in our relationship…….” The sales person ignored that, and repeated himself, “Show me the offers from my competition, I will beat them.” I politely declined and said it looked like we couldn’t do business. As he and his manager followed me as I left the dealership asking what they could do to get my business, I told them they should listen to what I wanted in the deal and respond to that, not focus on the competition.

Too often, we see the same behavior from sales people, they focus on beating the competition, not responding to the customer needs, requirements, and prioirities. Customers don’t care about competition, they want the sales person to focus on them. Beating competition must be an element of the sales strategy, but not the focal point. Thanks for joining the discussion Allan. Regards, Dave