Top Reasons You’re Losing Sales to Your Key Competitor

1. Poor pre-sales resources – Your competition will undoubtedly be arming

themselves with a strong sales team. This lets them understand the needs of their client
and how best to help them solve their problems and achieve their goals. Sales
Enablement will give them the tools to succeed while Sales Operations will create the
right playbook. That’s a tough combination to beat.

2. Out-of-range pricing – while customers will rarely choose the product or service
with the highest price, they also will not automatically choose the one with the lowest
price. Your competition, through effective market research, will have found the pricing
“sweet-spot” that has eluded you.

3. Lack of perceived difference and value – Sometimes it’s hard for your clients to
see the differences in two proposals. Your competition has been able to show the client
why they are the better fit. They’ve added value to their overall strategy and set
themselves apart.

4. Failure to evolve – If you’re not moving forward, you’re moving backward. Your
customer can tell when things are stagnating, and they will look for a different solution to
their problems. If your main competitor is a little more cutting-edge, a little more forward-
thinking, that’s a big temptation to a company considering a change in direction.

5. No hustle – 68% of companies leave their suppliers because of a perception of

poor attitude or indifference. Your competition has shown that they follow-through on
problems, have quick response times and accurate information. To put any client on
auto-pilot is a risk not worth taking.
6. Not selling to the right person – Your competition has zeroed in on the ultimate
decision maker; the person who makes the final choice. According to the Harvard
Business Review, there’s usually one person in charge of choosing and evaluating
products and services and 89% of the time that person’s decision rules. If you’re not
selling to that person, you’re wasting your time!

7. Lack of Engagement – You’ve been struggling to create and maintain a real

interactive dialogue with your client. Clients are people, and people don’t want to feel
like they’re just getting lip service, they want meaningful contact. Your competition has
been able to nurture a creative, fun relationship based on trust with this client, listening
to what they need – and effectively shutting you out.

8. No customer surveys – Are you surveying your customers on a regular basis? I’ll
bet your competition is, even if they’re only in the “fishing” stage. Regular feedback
shows you’re listening. Surveys and questions give salespeople a window into how their
goods and services are being perceived, places where they can improve, as well as
seeing opportunities for further growth.

9. Inadequate product knowledge – This drives buyers nuts. If your key competitor
can explain all the advantages and value of their products better than you in terms of
how these things provide value to your customer, you are dead meat! There’s no good
excuse for this.

10. Change in personnel – Companies generally want consistency in all aspects of

their dealings with you. If your company has a high turnover rate, a change of
salespeople can be a big problem without a transition strategy. Your competitor likely
has a consistent training and sales process to smooth-over any personnel changes and
minimize disruption.