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There are three skills that will allow you to beat the competition almost every time.

• Connect and Build Super‑Strong Relationships

Assuming you have at least an average product with a reasonable price, your ability to build trust and rapport and develop a relationship with the prospect are by far the most important elements when competing. All products and services have advantages and disadvantages, strengths and weaknesses. If people like you and trust you more than your competitors, then even if your product is higher priced and not as good, they will still buy from you. Again, price and value differences cannot be dramatic. Provided that your product is in the general ballpark and you have a great relationship, you’ll win every time.

In order for you to hang onto and keep selling to the account after the initial sale, the connection and relationship must remain strong. You do this by communicating often, going above and beyond, and never taking the customer for granted or letting service slip. Send cards, gifts, and other items and let the customer know you care and appreciate them. Get and share personal information and act on that information in order to increase the depth of the relationship. Your goal is to develop and personalize each customer relationship to the point where each customer is also a close friend. Satisfied customers, who are also close friends, will not leave you. And by the way, there is no new relationship selling, it’s always been about relationships.

• Have Great Sales Skills

In addition to allowing you to say and do the right things to make that initial connection and begin building the relationship, great sales skills will also help you make a logical argument for your product.

All people, even the most analytic amongst us, buy emotionally and back up the decision logically. The emotional purchase happened when they bought your product as a residual effect of having bought you in the connection and relationship stage. The reason why you still need a compelling, logical argument is that the prospect’s decision has to stand the test of time and scrutiny from others that they will directly or indirectly justify the decision to. They can justify slight differences in price and quality, they just don’t want to be embarrassed by making a bad decision.

The good news is — once the prospect likes you, they want you to prevail in making your logical case. In other words, now that they like and trust you, you can lead and educate them as to why your product is the best solution and they will follow and listen. Again, as all products have advantages and disadvantages, at this point you are like a lawyer making your case as to why your advantages outweigh that of the competition. Your sales skills will seal this logical side of the equation by giving the prospect the ammunition they need to justify the decision to themselves and others.

• Be Committed and Determined to Outwork the Competition

This aspect needs to be present both before and after the sale. Before the sale it shows up as pleasant persistence, after the sale it shows up as proactivity and responsiveness.

During your initial meeting and subsequent meetings with the prospect, you’ve got to have passion along with an absolute belief and conviction in you, your product and your company. You need to have a dogged determination and you have to be extremely persistent. You have to continue to follow up and be committed to getting them involved with your product.

Before the sale make sure you are doing what you say you will do when you say you will do it and do what you can to go above and beyond and stand out from the competition. Get the prospect on your contact list and make sure you are reaching out on a regular basis with pertinent items of interest. Look for ways that you can deliver and show value before you even get an order. The reaction you’re after here is, “Gee, my rep doesn’t even do that and I’m a customer.” Your objective is to be better and different than the competition and to do things that they aren’t doing and/or won’t do.

Both before and after the sale, you must respond as quickly as possible to phone calls, e-mails, and all other customer communications. If they call you with an issue or concern, get on it like a pit bull and get them an answer or resolve the situation as quickly as possible. You also need to be proactive and anticipate problems and situations before they arise and stay ahead of them.

Not only do you have to be willing to go the extra mile, you need to be willing to go a mile or two beyond that. Always make sure you give something extra, bend over backwards, and serve the customer, not only better, but far better than anyone else. If you are determined to go above and beyond, do more, work more, and go much further than anyone else is willing to go, you will stand out, you will be successful, and you will beat the competition almost every time.

Finally, remember that when you are competing you must do everything you can from a fair, legal, and ethical standpoint to win. You need to go to bed at night knowing you gave it your best shot possible and did everything you could do to win fair and square.

MANA welcomes your comments on this article. Write to us at [email protected].