Below is an excerpt from the book! I can hardly wait to get my copy!
Chapter 20: The Competition
*[Joe] clicked off the phone, set it on his desk and stared at it, lost in
disbelief at what he’d just done. “This guy just blows me off—and I give him
a referral?” he muttered. “And throw some good business at a
competitor?!”*— from The Go-Giver
*The chances are excellent that once you’re in a conversation about your
particular field, at some point you’ll be confronted with the perfect
opportunity to bash the competition. This is a character-revealing
moment.*In a few sentences, a few words—even a gesture or a look—you
can cause the
relationship to grow suddenly deeper and stronger, or deal it a fatal blow.
We are big believers in competition, but it’s important to remember why it
exists and what it’s doing there. We live in a society that permits and
encourages competition because of the value it contributes to the health of
the whole. This is not some abstract economic theory. Good competition keeps
you on your toes, raising the bar for what a business like yours can do.
Good competition pushes and stretches the limits of what’s possible.
In a very real sense, your competition is your best friend.
But sometimes people get confused about this and think the correct goal is
to destroy your competition. What a tragic error. If you could succeed in
destroying all your competitors, you would be raining down destruction on
your own field.
Happily, salespeople are often taught never to speak ill of their
competition, and that doing so will only make *them* look bad.
Unfortunately, most salespeople have been taught not to say anything
*good*about their competition, either.
Whenever you’re speaking to a prospect and they bring up your competitor, go
out of your way to say something nice about him or her. Because you’re a
nice person? No. (Although we’re sure you are indeed a very nice
person). *Because
when you compliment your competitor, you are also demonstrating
respect—and respect
earns respect*.
If in a conversation you tear down your competitor, it actually diminishes
you in the other person’s eyes. On the other hand, when you take care to say
something positive about your competition, it actually builds you up in
their eyes. These are the messages that register for the other person,
consciously or not:
*You are confident.* Knocking the competition is one way people often try to
*act* confident. Ironically, it telegraphs precisely the opposite message.
But if you not only refrain from speaking ill of your competitors but
actually speak highly of them, then you must be genuinely confident. And
confidence breeds confidence.
*You are successful.* If you are genuinely confident, then it stands to
reason you must also be successful. After all, unsuccessful people don’t
have that sort of genuine confidence in themselves.
*You are safe.* If you speak that highly of your competition, then this
person knows they’ll never have to worry about what you say about them
behind their back.
John tells a story about shopping for a car that shows how that difference
in attitude—*bashing versus respect, bravado versus genuine confidence*—cost
one dealer tens of thousands of dollars and earned it for another. He set
out to visit three different import dealers with the goal of comparing both
their cars and the experiences he had in each place. Here’s what happened:
First was the local BMW man, Mike.
I’d been there a few times, checking out a few cars on the floor, and Mike
remembered me vaguely. He took my kids and me for a test spin, and on our
drive we made small talk. I left the lot sort of liking Mike, but feeling I
hadn’t learned much about the car or gotten much value.
Next was Lexus.
The nearest Lexus dealer was a good ninety minutes away, and I was too busy
to go that distance. No problem. Tink Doyle from Lexus returned my call
immediately and said she could bring cars out for me to look at. What was I
looking for in a car, she asked (hmm, Mike had not asked me that), and what
else was I looking at? I told her: BMW, Lexus, Mercedes. “All three are
great cars,” she replied. “I have to admit, I personally love the Lexus
line. Well, obviously—that’s why I work here. But BMW and Mercedes are
excellent cars, too. You’ll do well either way.” She offered to bring a car
out for me to look at. The next day, she brought another. And then another.
For the next week, Tink made sure I didn’t pass a day without a Lexus to
drive.
Finally, I got to Mercedes.
Like Tink, Ed at Mercedes wanted to know what else I was test-driving. When
I said, “BMW—” he grunted. When I said “. . . and Lexus,” he let out a snort
of derision. “Not much of a car, really,” Ed let me know, and he launched
into a lecture about how many ways the Lexus was not what I wanted: it was
basically a Camry body with an inflated price tag; I wouldn’t be happy with
a dealer so far away; he’d heard its airbag might not be safe . . . .
By the time I left the Mercedes dealership, Ed had *made the sale*: I got
the Lexus.
Of course, there were features about the cars themselves that helped direct
John’s buying decision. But it was the attitudes of the three salespeople
that clinched the deal.
When you tear down another, you are the one on whom it reflects most poorly.
And when you take the high road and build up your competition, you create a
rising tide that raises all the ships in the harbor—and that reflects quite
well on you.
—————————————————-
———————————-
Adapted from Go-Givers Sell More by Bob Burg and John David Mann by
arrangement with Portfolio, a member of the Penguin Group (USA), Inc.,
Copyright © Bob Burg and John David Mann, 2010. http://www.GoGiversSellMor
e.com .
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