Differentiators vs Features - Stop Bad Pitches

Your comments on LightFinder being table stakes in top tier cameras are on the money. I think if investigated closely, you might find similar a state with Zipstream. The feature is well marketed but bench-marking Zipstream bandwidth performance against products top tier available in the broad market may prove it is not a true differentiator.

Great piece John.

Some unsolicited advice for everyone that is commenting: under the "don't have any" category, make sure your differentiators are as close to being objective as possible. Even though it's about you and/or your company, it's still important to make sure they're objective.

Looking forward to the discussion!

As a sales person sometimes all the cards are in your deck and sometimes only the one you need. I have always used two methods. FAB and 123. I'm simple minded, what can I say. I didn't create these. FAB is old school

Features is a list and it can be long. Advantages isn't what you have over your competitor, it what your prospect sees as useful as you make your case for

Benefits. Your competition may have 100 features and the prospect might need the one you have that they don't.

123...Sell yourself since people buy from people. I don't mention what the others can or don't do. It's too easy to be wrong and why sell them in a call? You aren't there for them.

Sell your company. The others aren't your company. What does your company bring to the table that will Benefit the prospect. You could be amazing, and your company hires and trains amazing people. Or, you can convince the prospect that they are lucky to have the shining star in the company because many of your coworkers are idiots....

Lastly.....sell the solution which is all about the benefits that the prospect sees as important.

I just had a large win against a very dominant competitor. Customer reason....we (the company) were the most responsive and that was the most important decision factor. His "benefit".

Great post on what some of us sales people trip on often. It is difficult to sales people to be fully aware of the competitions functionality which is why it is a good idea to focus on your product and not bash the competition.

A perfect example is dynamic frame rate functionality, this is not new, IndigoVision has been doing this for years. (Yes, I work at IndigoVision)

The best way to see what camera is best for a challenging application is to test them in that application. Lighting conditions are different in each application and many images may be good enough, but bit rates will vary (as you show in your tests) and that can be a critical parameter in the application.

Thank you John for this insightful advice. Our industry is plagued by confusion over feature sets that frequently have no relevant bearing on the customer's actual application. In my opinion, the most significant differentiator needs to lie with the integrator himself. It is the integrator whose job it is to understand, pitch, explain, and finally apply the correct solution for any given customer's needs. It is the integrator's conversion of a pallet-load of boxes into a value-added solution that is what the customer actually wants, but sometimes does not or cannot easily express. It is the integrator that needs to be there to support each one of his customers' sites in the future. Frequently, I think there is much too much emphasis on the minutia of one manufacturer's feature set to another, and not nearly enough emphasis on who is on the other end of the phone line when the customer needs support.

Comparative pitches are so "north american". I'd rather a vendor make a pitch extolling the benefits of their product on its own merits - and back it up with real, tangible data that validates their claims. The moment they compare themselves to others, they lose my attention. Advertising or pitches that cast competitors in a negative light rarely attract attention when the shot-gun gets "racked". It's a good sales person who can compel me to look at their product without trashing or throwing vendors under the proverbial "bus".

When I sell, I do it on the technical and cost merits of our product. Comparing myself only shows an insecurity in my product (and I do believe in it). All that said, there are audiences that will only be swayed (based upon our love of schadenfreunde) to seeing it piled on - I feel for them. Sell on your merits and counter negative claims with truth - it will set you free to do more business.

I often get asked in a presentation "How do you compare to XYZ" and my normal answer is "I don't really keep current on my competitors, but I can discuss what we can do for you. Did they show you something you thought would benefit you"?

It can be taken wrong and a courteous smile helps overcome. Sometimes I have to explain I'm busy enough keeping track of my features, and I'm sure I would make a mistake discussing someone else's.

Take back control of the sales call, that is why you are there. Would you tell your doctor...."Hey, thanks for seeing me and the other guy said XYZ, do you agree"?

Trashing the competition rarely works but I've heard it can be temporarily emotionally and not financially rewarding :)

I love articles like these because it gets to the heart of what I feel the biggest issue is, which is the problem we have as an industry. There are a lot of talented people out there...I know many of them...but the biggest problem IMHO is more about not understanding the "why" when presenting to our potential clients. Features, services, price, differentiators...they are all important but only after you understand the "why". The clients are looking to buy for a reason, but if you don't fully understand the big picture "why", you'll be shooting from the hip and focused on things that might not matter at all.

I agree that understanding the difference between features and differentiators is critical, but it's still not enough. Let your own personal differentiator be your willingness / ability to fully understand the things your client might not even be thinking about with regard to the bigger picture, and then you'll see a real shift that makes a bigger impact than having that one cool feature that no one else has...yet.

"Never mention the competition unless it comes up specifically". When it does acknowledge in a positive way and use a differentiator. Especially when the prospect reached out to you. They may not even have known that competitor existed until you jammed your foot in your mouth. I love when I hear the competition talking about me. It means I'm under their skin and doing something right enough to be part of their sales pitch. Its like free advertising even if its negative trash. The prospect now knows what competitor has your attention and they investigate on their own. Every buyer knows sales people lie ( It is a common perception, true do or not). Decision makers are not as stupid as one may think. You may just open another option they were unaware of before you vented your frustration go ahead talk trash!!!

I worked for a small Mobile Electronics manufacture (Memphis Car Audio) 20+ years ago in sales, in a Prior life. We would love being at CES in Vegas and hear customers come into the booth because another manufacture told them they were as good as us in their sales pitch. As soon as you mention a competitor you lost your prospects attention and your own credibility.

When I'm at a show and hear a competitor in a sales pitch its a must stop if a competitor has their attention its worth my time!!!!!!