tip to successful selling identify your

Identify your competition and then proceed to Analyze them, it is vital that you do this.Competition is tough and you as a professional sales person will face tough and unrelenting competition, so it is your job to know your competitors and create a competitive strategy. It is critical to understand how your customers feel about the competitors, this knowledge allows you to effectively position against them, in a way that neither denigrates nor promotes your competitor.Regardless of the amount of intelligence that your research team or marketing team have on your competitors, it is important that you do your own research, as part of your preparation to neutralize them.Your preparation thee days is relatively easy as the internet gives you instant access to information; other methods that you can use are colleagues that may have worked for the competition, literature put out by the competition, trade shows, annual reports, advertisements and so on.An untapped source of intelligence on your competition is your customers and potential customers, you can tap into this important resource by asking questions such as "Who else are you speaking with?" "How do you feel about them?" "What has your experience been like?" "What do you like about them?" "What would you change?" "Who are you working with there?" "How do we compare?" are just some of the intelligence gathering questions you could ask your customers.As you listen do not become defensive and never denigrate the competition, directly criticizing a competitor will reflect badly on you and scuttle any possibility of converting a sale, criticism of your competitor could back fire as the customer could become insulted as they selected to go to your competitor before they came over to see you.Instead of becoming defensive or critical ask your customer targeted questions and help the customer make the comparisons, find out what your competitors are offering, the relationship history and who they have access to. Ask your customers how they feel about your competitors and how you stack up. This will allow you to determine how your level of access to the customer and other members of the customer's decision making team compare.Asking structured questions saves valuable time and gives you valuable human intelligence. For example if you asked your customer how you stacked up and they replied that you were number two. You can ask why? With the answer to your why question you can now work on revising your approach (provided you have not destroyed that opportunity) and resubmitting your proposal, the chances are that you will in most instances win the deal.Here are some tips to move you along:1. Know your competitors
2. Get your customers perspective
3. Use tact to high light your competitors weaknesses

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