Experiment: Buy The Competition!

In this, her latest article on Selling Against Dell, sales consultant Kendra Lee advises solutions providers on:
* How to check out your products and services against your competitors.
* How to think like a customer throughout the entire sales process.
* How to use this information to improve your offerings.

Imagine yourself, for a moment, in your customer's shoes, considering a purchase. Who would you rather buy from, your company or the competition? Who has the more customer-friendly buying experience?

Not sure? Then buy a product from your competitor and see what happens. You may know a lot about the market for your products, but until you assume the role of an anonymous, uninformed customer and attempt to make a purchase, you may be missing important details about your competition's sales process. In this installment in our "Sell Against Dell" series, we will show you how to analyze the competition, whether it is Dell or a similar direct seller, by taking the customer's point of view throughout a full turn of the buying experience.

Basically, this is a lesson from the product development rule book. Product developers start their research by ripping the competition's product apart. They buy it, test it, put it through its paces and pull it to pieces looking for enhancements and flaws. They notice everything about the product they want to copy. You are going to do the same thing from a sales perspective. Buy your competitor's product and experience the sales cycle just as your customer would, noticing everything you like and don't like about the experience. Check out every stage of the process -- pre-sale, sale, delivery, service and return, if you decide not to keep the product. When you are done, you will have new information you can use to help steer customers to your offerings.

Let's look at some questions to ask yourself as you work through each phase, pretending, as the customer, that you know a brand name but have limited additional information about your competitor's product.

Pre-Sale

Start your research by contacting the company for information, either by phone or via their Web site. Read through the information, then phone or e-mail some detailed questions. Ask yourself:
a. How easy was it to find information about the company and the brand you were interested in? How about the product line and individual add-ons?
b. Would your customers understand all this information or did it require specialized technical knowledge?
c. Was the information inclusive enough to make an informed decision?
d. Could you readily compare similar products and options between your company and the competitor?
e. How well were your questions handled? Did they respond to your e-mails; to your phone inquires? How quickly?
f. Was it easy to narrow down your choices to one that met your specifications?
g. Was it easy to get a final price quote in a method that worked for you, i.e. Website, phone, fax or e-mail? Did the final quote include all costs, including shipping and handling and any other potential hidden costs?
h. Were the return guidelines clearly outlined? Were the service options clearly stated? Was it obvious what to do with a DOA (dead on arrival) product?

Sale

Order your product, then phone back a few hours later and try to change the order. Now ask yourself:
a. Was the Web site well laid out and simple to use?
b. How easy was it to reach a live representative, and was that person helpful or indifferent?
c. How easy was it to change your order? Did you easily and intuitively have the information you needed to change the order?
d. Was your changed order correctly and politely handled?
e. Could you reconfigure the product yourself?
f. Did your purchase meet your exact specifications?
g. Were you able to substitute components?
h. Was it an easy process to buy the product?
i. Did you feel your business was appreciated?
j. How quickly did you receive confirmation of your order? Of the changed order? Did the confirmation contain correct information?

Delivery And Set Up

Your product has arrived! Now it's time to see what you got.
a. Check the invoice for hidden charges or mistakes.
b. Did the product arrive on time?
c. Was the delivery process acceptable or did it require unusual acts to take delivery of your order?
d. Were any components missing or replaced with substitutions you did not request?
e. Set up the product and turn it on. If you are good at this kind of work, pair up with someone less experienced and let him or her do the dirty work. Many of your customers are uncomfortable with setup work, but lack in-house technical assistance. It is very important for you to see how easy it is to decipher the instructions that come with your competitor's product and to complete the setup under realistic conditions. In other words, can an idiot get this thing running or not?
f. Did everything work out of the box as promoted, or were there DOA components?
g. If one of the products was DOA (in our test, the monitor was DOA), how hard was it to order a replacement? How willing was the company to replace the product? How long did the replacement process take?

Service

Very likely, if you are reading this article, you pride yourself on service. It is how you differentiate yourself from direct sellers and their bare bones product sales. So it is quite important to compare your competitor's service policies with your own. Put your competitor's product through the paces. Use it as your customer would. Things to do and test at this stage include:
a. Call customer service and ask about how to solve some typical problems--both simple and hard ones. How easy is it to get some help?
b. If you didn't sign up for a service agreement, how easy was it to get your questions answered? How expensive was the service call?
c. If possible, test your competitor's real service capabilities by requesting on-site assistance.
d. If there are real problems, how easy were they to diagnose? How helpful was the service organization in the diagnosis? (Our hard drive sounded like something from the 1980s, but the service organization really didn't care.)
e. How many service calls were required to get a diagnosis? Did you have to call back? Did you feel the service organization was helpful and prompt? How long did you have to stay on the phone?
f. Was your problem resolved to your satisfaction?

Returns

Customers are anxious to know they can return anything that doesn't work right, so you must test your competition in this important area. Inform the seller the product is not satisfactory. Then continue your buying experience test.
a. Who pays for shipping and handling of the return?
b. If the company dispatches the freight company, how long does it take for product to be picked up for return?
c. Does customer service offer to replace it promptly, or does it dodge around desperately looking for an alternative, sending you back and forth to different departments and wasting a great deal of everyone's time in the process?
d. How quickly was the return processed? How long before the transaction is complete?

Once you have completed your analysis of the competition's buying experience, you likely will notice some differences with your own company's processes, both positive and negative. If you see strong advantages in the competitor's buying process, try and close the gap in your own processes. But hopefully, you will have noticed weaknesses you can exploit. Of course, never put down or disparage your competition, as it is unethical practice and cheapens your image.

Finally, test your own company's sales process in the same way, to find out if you are as easy to work with as you think. If you are, promote your company's own buying experience to full advantage. You'll have the force of personal experience behind your words.

As principal and founder of The KLA Group, LLC, of Littleton, Colo., Kendra Lee provides sales development consulting and training. She focuses on sales process streamlining, skills assessments, new market penetration, lead generation, sales differentiation and e-selling. She has been a featured speaker for national conferences on the topic of improved sales performance through personal responsibility.

Articles about or by Ms. Lee have appeared in numerous publications including Sales & Marketing Management, VARBusiness, Selling!, The Denver Business Journal, The Denver Post and The Rocky Mountain News.

Ms. Lee has helped small entrepreneurial companies and large multi-million dollar companies alike improve their sales results. She can be reached at klee@klagroup.com or check out The KLA Group Web site at www.klagroup.com.