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You want to use really good discovery
questions to get them to stand in their

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moment of pain with the internal solution. If you do it right, they

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will tell you that the internal solution
is a problem and it's not going to

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work for them. You're listening to
the audible Ready Podcast, the show that

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helps you and your teams sell more
faster. It's brought to you by the

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team at Force Management, a leader
in B to B sales effectiveness. The

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show features sales leaders sharing their best
insights on how to create a sales engine

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that helps you fuel repeatable revenue growth. Let's get started. Hello and welcome

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to the Audible Ready Sales Podcast.
I'm Rachel clad Miller, joined today by

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John Kaplan. Hi, John,
Rachel, how are you good? Good?

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Okay? We know many of you
listening out there are in challenging environments.

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You are selling in a challenging environment. Number one, keep pushing,

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keep going, it's going to get
better. Concentrate in the fundamentals. But

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here on the Autobolready Sales Podcast,
we're trying to tell our topics to help

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you find some success in those situations
you may find yourself in. They may

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be new to you, so today
we are going to tackle competing against an

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internal option. We call it do
it internally. Yeah, I think this

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is a great topic, Rachel.
It's it's probably one of the most underestimated

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competitors on the planet is for a
company to do it internally. And you

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know, with these tougher economic times, you can pretty much guarantee that you

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know this is going to come up
more and more for all of us in

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twenty twenty three for sure. So
even I'm becoming more of a di I

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wire with some of the stuff you
know at home and if anybody who knew

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me, who knows me, and
that's pretty drastic step for me, But

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every company is going to first ask
with any investment, can we do this

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ourselves? So it's a really good
topic for us to talk about today.

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Yeah, you don't want to underestimate
that competitor that is always in that sales

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process. So let's talk about how
we prepare for that internal We can do

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it internally, objection, I guess, so to speak. And then how

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we make sure we are accounting for
it throughout the sales process. First,

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if I know that's going to be
an issue, John, how am I

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preparing my discovery to make sure I
have the right information to differentiate against it

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later on. Yeah, I think
you're going to treat it like any other

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competitive situation, and so you know, just ask yourself, how do I

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treat other competitors and make sure you're
able to differentiate against them. So you

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want to make sure you understand why
you're a better solution. But you can

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either get to outcomes faster, you
mitigate risk, you avoid negative consequence,

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is etc. Those are some of
the common ones. But you want to

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prepare the questions that get to the
waste that you're better. And we call

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these trap setting questions, and there's
the same trap setting questions are the same

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whether it's an internal competitor or whether
it's an external competitor. However, you

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need to be very conscious of not
bad mouthing the current solution, as there's

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a very real possibility that you will
potentially offend the very person who created the

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internal So there's an old saying that
you can't call another person's dog ugly,

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but they can call their own dog
ugly. So you want to use really

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good discovery questions to get them to
stand in their moment of pain with the

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internal solution. If you do it
right, they will tell you that the

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internal solution is a problem and it's
not going to work for them. And

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this is selling one on one,
so it's the exact same thing you'll do

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with an internal competitor. Yeah,
you may, just you spend more time

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in your prep thinking about those questions
as it relates to the internal competitor because

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they're a stronger competitor in this type
environment. So John, asking questions one

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step, right, but you need
to stay focused on this internal option throughout

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the sales process. Talk about building
your differentiation into the solution requirements, the

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required capabilities as it relates to that
internal competitor. Yeah. I mean the

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most elite sellers on the planet all
know that they have to influence the decision

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criteria with their differentiation, and this
is an elite skill. But you don't

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want to overcomplicate it. So I
want you to think about your differentiation and

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ask yourself, so what if the
customer does not get the value from my

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differentiation? And what bad things will
happen for them? This is what I

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call the so what factor? So
you want to follow the pain of this

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value or the problem that they experience
by not having your differentiation and link it

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to negative consequences and go deeper and
deeper, helping them to stand in their

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moment of pain and come to their
own conclusion that they need your differentiation.

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So we always have to remember people
rarely argue with their own conclusions. And

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that's what elite sellers do, right, That's how you successfully compete against do

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it and Totally or really any other
competitor. But for the sake of this

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topic, here is get your differentiation
into the required capabilities to solution requirement.

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And it's important to know that this
internal option is going to keep coming up

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throughout your sales process, particularly as
you talk to different decision makers. Likely

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in your conversations with finance and legal
you may think, God, didn't we

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already handle this issue? Well it's
back again. You're building your case in

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every conversation. So how do I
make sure John, as a salesperson,

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I'm ready to continuously defend that differentiation. Well, you got to stick to

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a pretty simple framework. And we've
talked about the thousands of times on this

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podcast and the positive business outcomes that
you're trying to achieve. What are the

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required capability slash decision criteria and are
they favorable for you? And how will

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the customer measure success? And is
that measurement favorable for you? And that's

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what we call the mantra. And
you need to do it for every single

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one of your opportunities, right,
don't get slack, don't get slack.

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Yeah, it should also be said, I think when we're talking about competing

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against do it internally. In order
to do this well, you need to

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have a great understanding of the political
landscape of the company. Know what's going

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on in there where people might have
outcomes they need to drive where the allegiances,

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all our goals, etc. So
what questions am I asking? What

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am I doing to make sure I
gain the understanding that eventually helps me better

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differentiate? Well, I mean,
you got to keep in mind that your

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buyer is likely navigating the political landscape
within their own company, and they may

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fear the implications of going with an
outsider like you. There are several other

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factors they may be weighing as well, such as you know, saving you

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know, their or their own job
or somebody else's job, and you know,

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doing right by you know, their
own company. So you always want

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to stand in your buyer's shoes.
All of these political nuances will reveal themselves

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if you let your customer talk.
That means you need to be prepared with

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great discovery questions to get them to
talk and to stand in their own moment

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of pain. It's not it's not
any more difficult than that. Yeah.

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Yeah, And as we're talking,
and you kind of mentioned it earlier at

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the top, John, having this
type of conversation could also make it easy

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for you to fall in the trap
of hey, we're better than you type

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perception. You can't do it as
good as we can because you're essentially differentiating

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against the people you're having conversations with
as opposed to when you're differentiating get someone

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outside the company or another competitor.
So that's something you should watch out for

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in your tone, how you're delivering
your message. So to see at such

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a great point, I mean,
you want the buyer to understand that your

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primary concern is to help their company
and you want to be buy your focus,

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meaning that you want to make it
all about them before you earn the

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right to make it all about you. So in this case, don't be

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so quick to make it personal.
Focus on the business outcomes and negative consequences

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of the problems make it obvious that
no matter who the competitor is, it's

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not going to work for them.
And that's that's the best advice that I

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can give you on that. Yeah, all right, great tips here,

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John. I know it's fundamental,
it's sales fundamentals, but sometimes revisiting this

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stuff is particularly when you're in a
new type of environment or are having different

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types of conversations. Giving the economic
landscape, it can be great to refresh

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on these fundamentals. So John,
wrap us up here, give us a

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bottom line. Well, I think
for the bottom line for me, I

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think that I think that you're going
to have to expect that you will always

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have do it ourselves or do it
internally as a competitor, just kind of

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ongoing for the rest of your career. Just always assume that that's going to

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be the case. Some executives always
gonna ask why can't we do this ourselves?

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So stick to your guns, influence
the decision criteria with your differentiation,

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Be sensitive that the very person or
people that you are talking to might be

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responsible for that internal solution, and
don't over complicate it. Just do it.

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Just handle it as another competitor and
you'll be a great You'll have a

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great, great selling experience. Yeah, just remember the basics. Handle as

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another competitor, and as we always
say, don't forget to prepare, get

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your game face together. Thank you, John, Amen, have a great

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one. Thank you, and thank
you to all of you for continuing to

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listen to our podcast. Don't forget
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as sender. Go ahead and check
it out in the show notes. We'd

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love to see you on there.
At Force Management, we're focused on transforming

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sales organizations into elite teams. Our
proven methodologies deliver programs that build company alignment

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and fuel repeatable revenue growth. Give
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strategy at the point of sale.
Our strength is our experience. The proof

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is in our results. Let's get
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com, Best