IT’S JUST LIKE POLITICS

I ran into an old rep buddy of mine who I haven’t seen in about 10 years. We had the normal small talk and then the conversation came around to work. He told me the company he was working for and it is a direct competitor of the company he was with when I last saw him.

I know this rep pretty well and I know how he sold, his number one technique was to BASH the competition. I can remember debating with him about if bashing the competition was helping or hurting him. He has always felt it was helping him.

I never had the chance to work with him in the field, but by just talking to him I could tell the types of things he would say about his competitors, and now he was working for one of them. I asked him how he rationalized that in his mind. He said he says what he needs to say and does what he needs to do.

All that I could think about was the political debates and advertisements that I have seen over the past several months. It seems that the candidates say what they need to say and do what they need to do to get votes in the same way this rep gets customers and jobs.

I ask him how he could walk into a customer and say he was now working for a company that a few weeks ago was the worst company on earth? I had to laugh at his answer, he said the customers don’t remember what he said. I have to believe that is what the political candidates say when they accuse an opponent of everything from tax evasion to infidelity and then at the end they indorse the same person and call him the best thing since the bread slicer.

I am almost positive that my friends answer is true. I am sure that some customers don’t remember what a rep says about a competitor, however, I am just as sure a good number of them do. Just like voters like me remembers what one candidate says about another I would remember what a rep says.

The message here is a simple one and one that I am sure you have all heard before. Sell on the merits and value of your product and don’t bash a competitor. It doesn’t matter what industry you are in, you never know when you will be changing positions and companies.

It is hard enough finding qualified prospects, and out of the prospects you find only a certain percentage will buy and become customers. Why should your integrity be questioned because you bad mouthed a competitor and now you are working for the company you talked badly about. If the company, product or service was bad last week, last month, or last year isn’t it still bad? You told the customer what was wrong with the company why should they do business with it now?

I have always been taught that no matter how you cook it, eating crow is never good. Besides, as sales reps we have enough public relations problems, why do we want to bring ourselves as low as politicians!

Lorin