Use This Small Trick To Make Your Competitors Look Bad

Good Morning. The U.S. soccer team lost to Belgium last night, which means their World Cup run is officially over. At least us salespeople are used to getting emotionally invested in something that disappears right when it starts to look promising. Anyway, no use living in the past all morning. There are still emails to send and deals to overthink. Now, let's get into today's Follow Up. (:

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I’m in the market for a new air conditioning system, and 5 different HVAC sales reps came out to give me a quote.

Four of them followed a checklist, looked at the unit, told me what they’d replace it with, and handed me a proposal with a quote.

The 5th sales rep measured every air intake in my house, ran a calculation, and showed me that my old system probably died earlier than it should have because the intake setup wasn't built for the size of my unit. Not enough airflow led to too much strain. He walked me through exactly why it failed and what needed to change so the next one wouldn't have the same problem.

Out of 5 sales reps, he was the only one who caught it. And he got the job.

His price was also right in line with the others, which helped. But the real reason I picked him is that he made me feel like I was working with an expert, while the other four failed to diagnose the root problem.

The technique he used is something every sales rep can replicate. Here’s how:

Every great salesperson has one or two go-to things they teach every prospect.

A piece of knowledge or a diagnostic, or a specific feature they point out that nobody else mentions.

It's rehearsed and repeatable. And it’s extremely effective because it makes you look like the smartest person in the room, and it makes every competitor who didn't mention it look like they either missed it or hid it on purpose.

That HVAC rep probably runs the same air intake calculation at every house he visits. It takes him ten minutes. But to the homeowner, it feels like he just uncovered a problem nobody else was sharp enough to find.

You need to build your own go-to ‘thing’.

It should teach your prospect something and make the competition look like they don’t have your same expertise.

Say you run a consulting firm or any service that bills hourly. Your move could be offering a price cap. "This is the quote, and the total will not exceed this number." Then you ask the prospect if the other companies they're talking to offered that. And of course they’re not, because you invented it.

And now the prospect is thinking about what happens when that cheaper quote runs over. Because hourly work always runs over.

You can even play it off when they mention a lower price: "Yeah, that makes sense. They probably don't cap it. I see this a lot. A lower price gets you in the door, but look at the contract. They can charge you way more if the project takes longer or they hit an issue." Now the cheaper quote feels like a risk instead of a deal.

If you sell software, your move might be walking a prospect through exactly how data migration works and where most implementations break down.

If you sell insurance, it could be a specific coverage gap that 90% of policies have and that most brokers never bring up.

You only need 1 or 2 of these that you deliver in every pitch.

When you teach a prospect something they didn't know, you're perceived as an advisor instead of just a sleazy sales rep.

It also changes how they evaluate everyone else.

Once that HVAC rep showed me the intake problem, every other quote felt like it was missing a key ingredient. I couldn't unsee it.

Find your version of the air intake calculation. Practice it until it's second nature. Then use it on every single call.

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