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How to Keep Competitors Out of Your Accounts
Salespeople love to poach accounts from competitors, and your competition is no different.
Good Morning! Middle managers are disappearing faster than prospects who tell me to circle back in Q3. A new study shows the average manager now has 6 direct reports, which is double the pre-pandemic ratio of 3-to-1. Companies are cutting costs and letting AI handle “important” tasks like approving PTO. On the bright side, this means fewer people to block your deals… but also fewer to sell to. Now let’s get into today’s Follow Up. 😬
Responding to ‘we’re evaluating others’ 🗣️
Keep competitors out of your accounts ✍️
Most aggressive outbound campaign ever? 😅
Sales jobs & a meme 😂
Sales Tip of The Day 💡
When a buyer says, “We’re evaluating a few vendors,” don’t rush to differentiate.
❌ “Here’s why we’re better than them…”
✅ “Got it. Out of curiosity, how are you deciding which one is the best fit? What’s the one thing that will make or break this for your team?”
This gives you the decision criteria straight from their mouth, and lets you tailor your pitch to their real priorities.
Competing on features is a race to the bottom, especially when you don’t know what’s most important.
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Keep Competitors Out of Your Accounts
Salespeople love bragging about stealing customers from competitors.
But the truth is… while you're busy chasing new logos, someone’s out there plotting to steal yours.
They're researching your clients. Sliding into their LinkedIn DMs. Offering discounts, faster timelines, and promises of "better service."
If you're not actively defending your accounts, you're making their job too easy.
Today, we're breaking down how to keep your customers loyal and make your accounts impossible to steal.
1. Only Showing Up at Renewal
If the only time your client hears from you is when contracts are up for renewal, you've trained them to associate you with paperwork and budget requests. Yuck.
The best reps stay visible year-round with non-transactional touchpoints.
Share an interesting article. Forward company announcement. Congratulate them when their company achieves something.
This stuff takes five minutes but shows you're thinking about their business even when you're not asking for anything.
A silent and forgotten rep is a vulnerable one.
2. Multi-Thread at all Times
Most reps only use multi-threading for prospecting new deals.
But if you only have one contact at the account, you're one org chart shuffle away from getting ghosted by your company contact.
Smart reps build relationship webs throughout the account.
Got a champion in operations? Great. Now befriend the budget owner. Tight with the exec sponsor? Perfect. Add some power users who can vouch for you when leadership changes.
This is proactive work. The stuff you do before things go south.
Research shows that the average B2B buying decision involves 6-10 stakeholders. So if you're only tight with one, you're leaving the account wide open for competitors to swoop in.
3. Leapfrog their Poach
Savvy competitors run the same playbook you do… poke around accounts, look for the weak spots, and pounce when service slips or your customer starts shopping.
Get ahead of them.
Ask your customer questions like:
If you were to take a look at other competing products, is there anything that might tempt you to switch?
What's one thing you wish we were doing better?
This gives you a vibe check on where things are at.
It’s like asking where you’re going to die, so you never go there.
If you know what would make your customer switch, you can course correct to make sure they don’t.
So when your competitor knocks on their door, they (hopefully) won’t answer.
4. Don't Let Support Drop the Ball
You just did everything right. Hunted the account, closed the deal, and now it’s time to hand your new customer over to onboarding or support.
No more responsibility for that account, right? Ehh, not quite.
“Happy" accounts can still churn if their onboarding or support process sucks. And that's when a competitor's pitch starts to sound appealing.
When's the last time you checked in with your contact during onboarding or right after they’ve onboarded?
Ask them how the process felt, or if there is anything they feel is missing.
The best reps are proactive about finding potential risks or vulnerabilities, even when they fall outside of their direct scope.
Because you can’t help fix problems you don’t know exist.
What's your biggest challenge with customer retention? |
