How do you win competitive deals?
There’s a rental car company that won my business with glitz and glamour. After years of seeing nothing but car rental advertisements promising great service, picking me up, and endless lots of upgrades, there was a different value prop: they had Mercedes (pl?) and BMWs for less cost than a regular old cars at their competitors. It seemed like a home run.
A veteran CRO who advises several startups told me “I’m never interested in why a company buys your software. I want to know why they renew.”
In the case of the rental, that perspective would prove to be prescient. I waited for hours to get my car, and it wasn’t the car I “reserved,” it was basically whatever they could find. There seemed to be one person working the entire counter-to-lot operation, and that person was so overwhelmed that I almost filled out a job application just to alleviate their stress. I never renewed. My only recurring experience with them is my haunting memory whenever I walk past their advertisements at an airport.
It turns out… the industry emphasis on the ease, efficiency, and certainty of getting a car rightfully took precedence over the brand of the car. The “job to be done” is easily and reliably getting a car that gets me where I need to go. Comfort is a lovely feature, but it’s decidedly secondary and quickly lost when you’re stuck on those weird rental car lot benches.
So, how do you win competitive deals?
Start with why people renew, especially in a year like 2023. The answer is rarely a feature. Tech consolidation almost guarantees that someone else has your features, but that someone else is almost never your primary competition.
Your primary competition is the negative outcome of doing nothing. You sell against an alternate reality where nothing like you exists, and your customer’s business is materially changed by your absence. If you prefer half-full glasses, you sell the triumph of your customer when they start achieving the game-changing outcomes you determine together.
All we’ve done to this point is establish the general imperative. They’re in the food court, and they have to eat. Now, you need them to choose you over Cinnabon and Charley’s (good luck).
Statistically, the “lead bullet” of sales isn’t a feature, an ROI calculation, or price: it’s certainty.
Getting somewhere is essential. “Which car” is a perk. And… knowing you’re getting somewhere is going to trump the car you’re in every single time once someone has “made that mistake before.”
Certainty wins deals, and there are three primary uncertainties that you have to ace in order win against your competition:
1. Technical: Everything works in a vacuum… will it work here?
Basically, does it it work? This is what a proof of concept is meant to be. We’re identifying a couple core capabilities and proving they work in a specific environment. Increasingly, POCs are being replaced by architecture sessions or proofs of value, but the uncertainty is still the same. The key here is to be up-front with expectations and execute like clockwork. You want the buyer to know that you’ve got their back and will deliver the outcome without any surprises.
2. Functional: Even if it works, will it deliver the outcome I need?
This uncertainty is where social proof like reference customers becomes so vital. We’re now officially measuring value, not features and functions. It’s a slippery question, but an important one: “am I going to be glad I did this?” I had a prospect the other day say true success in using our platform would mean sellers are unable to imagine how they could live without it five years from now. The more relevant people who convey that kind of positive experience to a prospect, the more they are inclined to believe it’s worth it for them.
3. Tactical: Change is hard… can I, actually, pull this off?
Last is very much not least in this case. Ease of execution becomes the ultimate decider in competitive deals. After all, how am I going to be confident in an outcome if I’m not even sure how to buy the damn thing.
Harvard Business Review says 62% of competitive deals are won by whomever is easiest to buy from. Buyers have evolved to learn that complexity hides chaos. If any one thing is hidden, anything else could be hidden, too. A bad buying process throws any certainty out the window. Great coaches are great motivators, but great coaches are also great simplifiers. You have to make every step between the start line and the finish line as achievable and tangible as possible.
Uncertainty kills your deals, and puts you behind your competition.
This might seem like a lot, but the good news is these three certainties aren’t new additions to your deal: they’re the overflow of running a great process.
There’s a maxim in baseball: you don’t win by pitching against the other pitcher. You win by winning the next pitch.
Make great pitches. Execute every little thing. Plan your success against all three uncertainties. Put the work in to ensure technical, functional, and tactical success, and then let the competitive chips fall as they may. And, ultimately, don’t worry about whether or not the choose you today… worry about why they renew once they do.
