Common Proposal Failure: Ignoring Your Competition
Do you know who your competitors are, and how you stack up against them?
| Pursuit | Strategy | Proposal Writing
Several years ago when I was a salesperson in the hotel industry, part of our overall strategy was to regularly conduct competition studies of other hotels/resorts. Since this was the era before the internet, we would spend a night at our highest competing hotels and do a full report on their strengths and weaknesses (compared to ours).
Ideally, we would meet also with our counterpart salesperson for a tour, so we would know exactly what and who we were selling against. This was common practice—I performed many tours for my competitors as well.
There was one hotel and salesperson who always stood out as my biggest competitor—Mike. Not only was Mike’s resort beautiful, but he was an excellent salesperson. When I knew a customer was looking at Mike’s resort, I knew I had my work cut out for me.
Fortunately, Mike and I were friendly competitors. We congratulated each other on wins and were supportive of one another throughout our careers in the industry. Nonetheless, when I was up against him I knew the best ways to sell against him, and I also knew what he was going to say about my resort!
An example of my response to the customer upon learning about their upcoming tour with Mike:
“That’s a great hotel! Say hi to Mike, he's great! Just to compare, they are a much larger resort than ours—where you’ll be mixed in with many other groups vs. being the sole focus of our staff.”
For many customers, this was a huge selling point.
I also knew that he knew every weakness of my hotel and would use it to his advantage. So I had to know how to overcome those objections.
For example, a portion of our guest rooms were close to a noisy freeway, so knowing that Mike would bring this up, I would show the client the “non-freeway” rooms and assure them that we would block their group rooms in the mountain/pool view side. This is how I overcame our weaknesses.
Every product or service has strengths and weaknesses—it’s vital that you know yours and your competitors.
Knowing Your Competition
In any sales or bid situation, do you know who your top competitors are? When in a bid situation, have you asked the customer, “Who else are you considering?”
I say this, as I’m surprised how many salespeople don’t ask this question in the qualification process.
Sometimes it’s not possible to gain this information—like if you’re working on a government RFP.
However, you should know who your top competitors are in your marketplace, and how you stack up against them.
You may not be able to do the kind of competition analysis that I did, or have a research team to do it for you, but today we have access to so much information through websites, reviews, etc. Spend the time conducting a formal competitive analysis of your own, before your next proposal.
Ways to conduct an analysis:
Make a list of who you think are your top 5-10 competitors (and update it regularly when you get new information about new competitors)
Do a deep dive into their websites - look beyond their product/services. Look for mission, vision, values, and differentiators. Have they written any articles? Received any awards? How are they unique?
What are their prices? How do they compare to yours? Are they a low-baller?
Read their Google & Yelp reviews - what are their customers saying? Who are their customers?
Research them on social media - what is their message? How are people interacting with them?
Research key members on LinkedIn, and even try to connect. Do you have any mutual connections? What do they know about the organization?
If possible, try their product or service for yourself.
Do a full list of their strengths and weaknesses. What do they offer? How is it different than what you offer? How can you sell against them?
The Key to Differentiating Yourself
This is more than knowing your strengths and weaknesses - you have to show how you’re different.
There also has to be “proof” of this. Using a canned phrase like, “Our people are the best,” isn’t specific enough to prove, not is it anything different than what anyone else could say.
For example, one of the differentiators I used when selling against Mike’s resort was that our resort was smaller and independently owned, since his resort was larger and part of a big hotel chain.
In addition to highlighting how our resort was beautifully built into the side of a mountain, and aesthetically there was no other resort like it, I would emphasize that as an independent property, we were smaller and able to focus all our attention on our guests. Our guests could expect a high-end, unique, personalized, creative approach towards their group—like customized menus from an award-winning chef for their meals—in a beautifully unique environment. And because of all this, their guests will feel like they are somewhere special, not just at some cookie-cutter chain hotel.
This was our win theme in our proposal.
Today I would also add additional “proof points” such as testimonials and statistics about customer satisfaction, like TripAdvisor, Yelp, etc. and highlight them throughout our proposal.
Other Variables to Consider
Knowing your competition will help you position yourself to win. However, there may be some competitors that you know cannot win against—for example, an incumbent. Knowing this and spending your time wisely will save a lot of unnecessary time, money, and energy on a response.
Focus on those bids that you have a strong chance of winning. Knowing your competition and how to sell against them is the key to your success.
