超越你的競爭對手

任何特定的產品往往有具有廣泛戰略的競爭對手。在一端是“溢價”的產品，這是比其他對手昂貴，但附帶額外的特點和保證。另一方面是“折價”的產品，其售價較低（有時低得多），但缺乏重要的特徵，質量和耐久性較低，從長遠來看，通常令人失望。

你的競爭者很可能會週期性地進行促銷，讓事情更複雜。他們大幅降價以吸引一些客戶離開你。陡峭的折扣往往會與延長的契约掛鉤。即使你的客戶承認他們犯了一個錯誤，你還是很難挽回他。

當一個（臨時或永久）降價率競爭者的銷售人員發起一場運動來吸引你的顧客時，你將開始接到客戶的電話，告訴你你的競爭者提供的價格要低得多，並問你是否能與之匹配。在大多數情况下，回應以急劇折扣價格簡直是不可能的。即使你可以，這是一個很大的錯誤，因為客戶將來會期望類似的價格——這意味著你會失去客戶的利潤，甚至可能會虧給他。

與其試圖在價格上競爭，最好的辦法是在價值上削减競爭對手。向顧客解釋他將失去所有的優惠辦法和產品特徵，以換取較低的價格。你最好花些時間去熟悉你的競爭對手的產品，因為這樣的研究，是值得的。

你越瞭解你的競爭對手，你就越容易安排出為什麼和你的公司呆在一起是你的客戶的最佳選擇。

如果客戶不相信你的價值比較，下一步就是拿出你的客戶證言文件。有些客戶曾經切換到競爭對手，然後後悔了，或者是曾經想要切換到競爭對手，然後發現這會是可怕的想法。這些客戶證言，會對你非常有價值。嘗試收集每一種客戶證言，並把它們留在這些時刻。令人悲哀但真實的是，顧客會更加信任其他顧客說的話，然後他們才會接受銷售員告訴他們的說法。

有些客戶根本不聽價值論點。他們的主要動機是得到盡可能得到低的價格，不管你說什麼，他們都會繼續回到這一點。對於這樣的顧客，你最好讓他們離開。價格激勵的客戶往往是你利潤最低的客戶，因為他們專注於獲得最好的交易。有可能在切換到更便宜的競爭對手之後，這些客戶中的一些最終會意識到價值和價格之間的差異，在這種情況下，當他們回到你身邊時，他們將是你視野中更好的顧客（別忘了從他們那裡收集一份證明）。

因為你可以在很大程度上依賴於降低利率的競爭者試圖在某個時候偷走你的客戶，所以積極主動並採取措施讓他們更難是個好主意。忠誠度計劃是一個很好的作法——他們實際上是獎勵顧客堅持，通常是通過給長期顧客提供折扣或者在他們從你身上購買了一定數量的東西之後給他們未來的購買稍好的價格。因為和你在一起的客戶通常比新客戶更有利可圖，所以給這些客戶小打折扣不會損害你的利潤率。這些忠誠度計畫讓你的客戶“更黏”，因為如果他們離開，他們失去了這個計劃的好處。

Beyond your competitors

Any particular product often has competitors with a broad strategy. At one end is a "premium" product, which is more expensive than other competitors, but with additional features and guarantees. On the other hand, the "discount" product, which sells at a lower price (sometimes much lower), lacks important features, has lower quality and durability, and is usually disappointing in the long run.

Your competitors are likely to make things more complicated by periodic promotions. They cut prices sharply to attract some customers to leave you. Steep discounts are often linked to extended contracts. Even if your client admits that they made a mistake, it's still hard to save him.

When a salesperson of a (temporary or permanent) price-cutting competitor launches a campaign to attract your customers, you will begin to receive calls from customers telling you that your competitors offer much lower prices and asking if you can match them. In most cases, it is simply impossible to respond with sharp discounts. Even if you can, this is a big mistake, because customers will expect similar prices in the future - which means that you will lose the profits of your customers, or even lose them to him.

Rather than trying to compete in price, the best way is to cut competitors in value. Explain to the customer that he will lose all the concessions and product features in exchange for a lower price. You'd better spend some time familiarizing yourself with your competitors'products, because such research is worth it.

The more you know your competitors, the easier it will be for you to figure out why staying with your company is the best choice for your customers.

If the customer does not believe your value comparison, the next step is to take out your customer testimony documents. Some customers have switched to competitors, and then regret, or have wanted to switch to competitors, and then found that this would be a terrible idea. These customer testimonies will be very valuable to you. Try to collect each type of customer testimony and leave it at these moments. It's sad but true that customers trust what other customers say more before they accept what salespeople tell them.

Some customers simply don't listen to value arguments. Their main motivation is to get as low a price as possible. Whatever you say, they will go back to that. For such customers, you'd better let them go. Price-motivated customers are often your least profitable customers, because they focus on getting the best deals. It's possible that after switching to cheaper competitors, some of these customers will eventually realize the difference between value and price. In this case, when they come back to you, they will be better customers in your vision (don't forget to collect a certificate from them).

Because you can rely heavily on competitors who cut interest rates trying to steal your customers at some point, it's a good idea to be proactive and take measures to make them harder. Loyalty programs are a good practice - they actually reward customers for persistence, usually by offering discounts to long-term customers or by offering them a slightly better price for future purchases after they buy a certain amount of stuff from you. Because customers with you are usually more profitable than new customers, giving them a small discount will not hurt your profit margin. These loyalty programs make your customers "stickier" because if they leave, they lose the benefits of the program.