Manufacturers Don't Want to 'Bad Mouth' The Competion

Try it out in the comments. Go undisclosed and make some specific criticisms of competitors. We'll give feedback.

As an end user I have never had anyone unwilling to criticize competitors when discussing issues with me. It often goes, " I don't want to talk bad about XYZ company, but....." and then the flood gates open.

When somebody asks me "What do you think about product X of Company X?" I try to avoid simple criticism. Usually it sounds like "Product X is good at 1/2 but in our product we have added 3/4 to 1/2 that makes it more reliable/convenient etc. " or if I have info on the customer project - "It can be used for your project but note that in your case you will need 1/2/3 and the Product X has issues/flaws with 2/3 that can make your project more expensive/complex etc." It can be subjective (it is always subjective) but has to be honest and if it is possible be based on facts.

Saying "I don't want to criticize my competitors" is code for "I don't have any compelling differentiators."

I can give you an example of a premium brand of cameras that uses components that all have an MTBF of 100,000 hours which some of the better sales people use as a differentiator... does that meet your criteria? And yes it is an actual manufacturer...

John, because of your role as press/media, manufacturers are much less likely to speak openly about competitors to you, without clear assurances they are not going to get involved in a public back-and-forth, even if the sources of the info are kept anonymous.

When it comes down to face-to-face discussions with sales prospects, there is no hesitation to really press on the differentiation between products.

But even then, you will lose credibility with some people if you are just highlighting negative information about alternate products (even if they are verifiable facts) if they don't directly relate to the conversation about meeting the customer's needs.

If a customer isn't interested in how many MPG a car gets, the sales guy criticizing how poor the MPG is on his competitor's cars (even if true) doesn't help his chances and may hurt them.

Here's one more thought on this:

In auto racing you will often see two cars in the pack who are fighting for position. To defend against being passed the lead driver must take less optimal lines through corners. He can successfully defend this way but ultimately both cars lose ground to the rest of the pack.

Especially when it comes to talking to the media/press negatively about competitors, I may put some ground between me and that competitor, but depending on how they respond, we may drag each other down.

I agree with stating facts, I just state the facts of what other competitors do and how we differentiate. I rarely speak derogatory and sometimes even sprinkle praise in there of the competitors.:

- ADI is real convenient to buy from, I agree, but we have a different business model then simply flipping products. Rather than ask you to contact the manufacturer for support of your products, we have a dedicated staff of in-house techs that can help answer any of your questions. We firmly believe that if we are going to stock a particular product, we should know that product inside and out. We have even gone so far as to make all of our own video guides and manuals on our website, because we just weren't satisfied with the manufacturers manuals. I'd even risk to say that we may be better at support than the actual manufacturer itself. Not to mention, if you have a large job and you need indepth analysis on how to speck that particular job out, we have a tech oriented sales staff that is specifically trained on how to do that, we can spend as long as you need to get this nailed down to the perfect products for your scenario

- Hey I dont blame you if you want to buy that on Amazon for $20 less than what we have it for. I buy on Amazon all the time, I love Amazon. If I could give you any advice though, just make sure that you get the sellers contact info and find out about their tech support and warranty service, because I'm 100% sure that the manufacturer will not honor either of those through a product bought on Amazon and thats something you will want on a product such as this. Thats why you just want to make sure that the re-seller will handle all that. If all that checks out, then I'd say go for it. (that almost always never checks out). BTW, if it doesnt work out, we have lifetime tech support and we handle the 3 year warranty on that product for you. If anything goes bad, we replace it right out of our stock in Tulsa, OK. (rather than China!!!!!)

- Yeah, Axis is excellent equipment, pioneers in the IP Camera industry. The only problem with Axis is that your paying for the name and you may end up quoting yourself out of some jobs. I'd invite you to take look at some of our products and look at the image quality and software interfaces of our products, you will find there isnt much difference in quality but our stuff is 1/3 less or more. I'd like to send you a sample for you to take a look. Customer receives it: "Wow this little thing has a great image!!!"

Competitors would love to criticize their competition more but are restrained by the downside of being perceived as negative, as well as the realization that anything bad they might say about their competition is discounted to begin with.

Both these objections though can be overcome: Should Manufacturers Sponsor Penetration Testing Of Competitor's Products?

I think a big reason people do not bash their competitors hard is because in this industry there is a lot of turnover. You never know who you could be working for down the road. Maybe that competitor comes to recruit you down the line and offers you a 20% raise over your current position?

Point being, people don't forget in this business. There is such a thing as "classy competition." If you go for the jugular on a deal and rip your competition it could be closing the door on an opportunity down the line...

Selling against a competitor is like a debate - except in this debate, each side gives their arguments to the customer without the other side being present - and then the customer decides whose argument was stronger by buying their stuff.

imo, this is all about how manufacturers and distributors and VARs (and their sales and marketing efforts) attempt to position themselves in the market. One style argues from a position of strength, while the other style can be seen to be arguing from a position of weakness.

Strength:

Having an actual differentiator and trumpeting this loudly - I think leading with differentiators is what any good sales person would do (if they possess any) - and by doing so, there is no need to bad mouth your competitors. By trumpeting your 'feature X' you are (in essence) bad mouthing your competitors by indirectly stating your competitors suck because they don't have this thing.

Example: Axis and their marketing blitz when they rolled out Zipstream back when. They lead with the narrative of what they have - not what others don't have (which is inferred, but not stated).

Weakness:

Pointing out a flaw in a competitors product - while I agree with John that in the grand scheme, this can be beneficial to customers (if it can be proven), I also agree with Ryan (and Steve) that this is much harder to lead with - without sounding like your products really have nothing special to offer.

Examples:

"One famous executive at ISC West knocked Hikvision H.264+ to me, not understanding how it actually worked..."

"If a customer isn't interested in how many MPG a car gets, the sales guy criticizing how poor the MPG is on his competitor's cars (even if true) doesn't help his chances and may hurt them."

"My competitor likes to kick puppies"

Not only must you be very certain that what you are saying is true (and not just your own biased perspective), you also have to make sure you tie this competitors 'flaw' to something the customer in front of you even gives a crap about.

I think Sean Nelson's narrative above is a great example of 'winning the debate' by arguing from a position of strength.

This discussion is sorely in need of some actual competitor bashing.

Don't have any differentiators?

Try taking your competitors differentiators and inverting them. Often times even something that is generally superior will still have some negative trade offs.

Examples:

1. If your competitors software runs on Mac and PC, stress the improved reliability and responsiveness of a single code base optimized for one target OS.
2. If your competitor's product is known for being 'built like a tank', stress how lightweight and small yours are.
3. If you were too cheap to add a reset button, explain how theives will not be able to use your device, and therefore will prefer to steal competitors units.

The last one is pretty far-fetched, but it's been used...

When I worked for one of the top 3 VMS companies, I found myself in competitive situations often where people would ask, "why is your solution better?" If you don't know what about your own product IS better, then you can't answer the question. I did and discussed the differences -- factual and practical. I usually tried to highlight the pros and cons to each approach to remain impartial and let the customer decide for themselves. I did win a lot more often than not. The point is that I never "slammed" the competition, but I had to know about them in order to discuss the differences which almost every customer wanted to do. Once you understand the differences, you can determine where your product fits best and what your ultimate value proposition really is, and then you SHOULD talk about it. Maybe don't lead with it, but it will usually come up, at least in my experience. But, always be respectful, never lie or embellish, and don't be afraid to tell your customer where your competition is better than you. No one out there is better than everyone else in every area, so don't try to pretend that you are. Customers will appreciate the honesty much more.

Got this in my email today.... Somehow I get the feeling it will be more promotional and toned down that what one may expect, I don't know why, but I signed up just to see what happens.