01 December 2009 | Miller Heiman

If you could only ask one question of your sales team this week to move sales forward, ask this:

Have you identified all competition for the sale?

It’s a common misconception that the only type of competition sales professionals have to take into account is other sales professionals.  The reality is that there are three additional forms of competition. The trick is in considering not who could take away the business, but what. Yes, your prospect could ultimately choose to buy from a sales rep at an alternative company, but they could also choose to:

• Use internal resources to attempt to fix, accomplish or avoid the challenge.
• Use the budget in question to accomplish something else.
• Do nothing.

These other choices are not always so easy to spot, though. To identify all possible competition, the best approach is often a direct approach: asking what alternatives are being considered and what additional initiatives may be competing for the same budget.

Learn more about identifying additional forms of competition.

photo credit: Digital FotoFusion Library