What other products and services do your customers consider to be potential solutions for their needs? Why? And how do your products and services compare on key features and benefits?
Sometimes we get so caught up in our work that we forget to ask – and that’ not a good thing!
Why you must ask your customers about the ‘competition’.
When you ask your customers for their opinion of the ‘competition’, you can learn if your messaging is focused on those issues of greatest importance to the customer.
And when you have this conversation with prospective customers, you can get some incredible insight into the quality of your lead generation programs. Honestly, I can’t tell you how many times this type of simple research has identified opportunities to improve targeting and/or messaging.
Then there is the opportunity to identify opportunities to upgrade existing products and services, or develop new ones.
Four questions to ask.
- What other products and services are you considering?
- Why do you feel these products and services offer you a solution for your need?
- What do you feel are the strengths and weaknesses of that product and service?
- How does our products and services compare to those competitors?
When you ask your customers to identify the competition, make sure you do it as an aided and unaided question – let them provide their own answers, then ask them to react to a list. You might be shocked to find out who is – and isn’t – on the list.
Once you have completed these four steps in the process, you should be able to determine what to do in order to improve your ability to attract, engage and retain profitable customers.
