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How To Sell When Your Product is Inferior
Selling an inferior product can be done ethically. Here's how.
Good Morning, and welcome to the 2nd day of September. Technically, that means we’re in the final month of Q3. Unless, of course, you work at one of those companies that thinks the regular calendar is for amateurs and has already decided it’s Q1 of 2026. Which is great… until a prospect tells you, “circle back in Q1” and you have no idea when that is. January 2025? Next week? Fiscal year 2027? No one knows. Now let’s get into today’s Follow Up. (:
Using silence as a tool 🤫
Selling an inferior product (ethically) 🧠
How she scales ChatGPT’s sales team 👀
Sales jobs & a meme 😂
Sales Tip of The Day 💡
When you’re on a call and hit a silet streak, don’t fill it with more pitch. Use it to your advantage.
❌ Rambling on to avoid silence.
✅ Pause, then ask: “What’s your first reaction to what I just shared?”
This prompts them to share their honest feedback, and turns awkward silence into a chance for more discovery.
The best reps are comfortable with silence and use it as a tool.
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How to Sell When Your Product Isn't the Best (And Still Win Deals)
Selling gets way easier when you have the best product in the market.
But that’s not the reality for a lot of us.
If you're carrying fewer features, a weaker brand, or a smaller company behind you, every deal can feel like an uphill battle. Your prospects have "better" options, and your competitors have bigger marketing budgets.
But underdogs can still win. You just need to work smarter.
Today, we're breaking down how to close deals when your product isn't the market leader.
1. Pick Your Battles Wisely
When you can't win everywhere, you need to win somewhere specific.
Research shows that B2B buying involves 6-10 stakeholders on average. That's a lot of people to convince when you don't have the flashiest product.
Start looking for situations where your weaknesses don't matter and your strengths shine. It could be your quick onboarding time, cheaper options, or added support.
Try an opener like this: "Not sure if this is useful, but teams using [competitor] love their features. We get pulled in when they need fast rollout in under 30 days. Does that timeline matter for you this quarter?"
Use your win/loss data to find patterns.
Tag deals in your CRM by customer type, use case, and outcome. What scenarios do you win the most? Then hunt for more prospects just like those.
2. Make Buying Feel Safe
When prospects can't tell which product is "best," they usually pick the safest option.
Every purchase comes with a risk, often evaluated by which choice will…
Most likely solve their problem.
Give them the least amount of issues.
Not get them fired.
Your job is to make your solution feel like the lowest-risk choice.
Offer a pilot program with clear success metrics. Try defining 3-5 measurable outcomes upfront: "Within 30 days: setup under 3 hours, 95% data match vs legacy system, and 2 teams live with weekly active use. This triggers a contract at $X."
Create a Mutual Action Plan that maps every step to go-live. This should include what’s needed from your champion, legal, procurement, etc. Companies like Highspot and Mindtickle report that MAPs increase forecast accuracy and reduce deal slippage.
Provide real SLAs with actual penalties. AWS publishes clear service level agreements with credits: "99.0-99.5% uptime gets 5% credit, 98.0-99.0% gets 10% credit, under 98% gets 20% credit."
When you find ways to remove the risk of choosing you, you make it a whole lot easier for the prospect to say yes.
3. Sometimes Speed Beats Features
Most companies take forever to show value. You can win by being different.
Research from G2 shows that 57% of buyers expect an ROI within 3 months (but most don’t get that).
Promise fast results and deliver them: "Other vendors take 90 days to get you live. We'll have you running in two weeks with our sprint plan."
Focus on Proof of Concept plus Proof of Value. PoC answers "can it work here?" while PoV answers "is it worth it?" Run both with their actual data.
And then share specific customer stories to back it up: "Company X was using [competitor] for 5 years, switched to us, and saw 27% improvement in their first quarter." This beats generic feature claims every time.
4. The Contract Advantage
When you can't win on features, win on terms.
Offer ramp pricing that aligns with their growth: "Year 1: 100 seats with usage overage at $X/seat. Price protected at renewal."
Offer training incentives: “If the customer completes our 8-hour onboarding education, we will waive the $5,000 implementation fee.”
Include pilot-to-purchase triggers: "If success criteria A, B, and C are met by [date], customer proceeds to annual term at $X. If not, the customer may terminate with no further obligation."
Offer payment term trades: “Net-60 day payment terms with logo use + public case study allowed in first 6 months of usage.”
There are an unlimited number of ways you can use contract terms to remove risk and sweeten the deal, and these are just a few.
When you don’t have the best product in the market, you need to get creative to win.
Do you sell the best product in your market? |
