#Sales 7: 5 Ways To Sell Against Your Competitor w/ Mike Paladino

WEBVTT 1 00:00:05.120 --> 00:00:08.669 Think about your competitors is like fierce warriors. I think that we need to 2 00:00:08.710 --> 00:00:11.949 have respect for the people we sell against, because capitalism, baby free market. 3 00:00:13.070 --> 00:00:16.550 Welcome to the BDB gross show. I'm your cohost, Patrick downs, 4 00:00:17.309 --> 00:00:20.829 the eternal sales and amlement and trading manager at pantadoc. If they'll let me, 5 00:00:21.660 --> 00:00:24.859 today we're going to be talking about five ways to sell against competitor. 6 00:00:25.379 --> 00:00:29.739 I'm here with Michael Palladino now, and affectionately as pal internally, is the 7 00:00:29.780 --> 00:00:33.859 head of sales here at PANTADOC. Thanks for being here at PAL introduction. 8 00:00:34.579 --> 00:00:38.049 Thank you so much for having me. As you mentioned, Mike Palladino, 9 00:00:38.170 --> 00:00:42.049 head of sales, been here for almost four and a half years now, 10 00:00:42.090 --> 00:00:46.170 so seeing a whole lot of different things and I'm happy to have the opportunity 11 00:00:46.170 --> 00:00:49.049 to share some stuff with you today. Yeah, I don't think we've ever 12 00:00:49.090 --> 00:00:52.640 had this kind of conversation. It's usually more like behind closed doors. That's 13 00:00:52.759 --> 00:00:56.799 can go kind of thanks. I'm excited. Yeah, absolutely, it'll be 14 00:00:56.840 --> 00:01:00.960 fun. All right, I want to start about how you internally view the 15 00:01:02.079 --> 00:01:07.030 competitive landscape. While you're selling, how are you thinking about your competitors? 16 00:01:07.069 --> 00:01:11.430 Yeah, I think it's a great question and I I actually believe that you 17 00:01:11.510 --> 00:01:15.510 should kind of have two schools of thought on this internally, one is your 18 00:01:15.629 --> 00:01:21.099 client facing opinion of your competitor and then your internal opinion of your competitor. 19 00:01:21.299 --> 00:01:26.219 So by internally right, like we at Pantadoc, we have a mission to 20 00:01:26.659 --> 00:01:30.980 beat some of our competition. However, when we're we're in, you know, 21 00:01:30.060 --> 00:01:37.049 a conversation with a prospect who might be evaluating to it's much more about, 22 00:01:37.769 --> 00:01:42.010 you know, respecting the competition, giving them some credit, especially stuff 23 00:01:42.010 --> 00:01:45.930 that has brand recognition in the market, so that we don't look like fools 24 00:01:46.290 --> 00:01:49.920 as experts in the space, we should be very well versed in the competition. 25 00:01:51.359 --> 00:01:57.200 So I think that there's a fine line between knowing your competition educating your 26 00:01:57.319 --> 00:02:00.159 buyers on you know, making sure that they're making the right decision, because 27 00:02:00.200 --> 00:02:06.750 that's ultimately our job if we're going to be customer centered and being consultative about 28 00:02:06.829 --> 00:02:09.710 strengths and weaknesses based off of the specific use case, and try to be 29 00:02:09.710 --> 00:02:14.870 as honest as you possibly can. How often are you recommending like hey, 30 00:02:14.949 --> 00:02:17.539 maybe this isn't a great fit, maybe there's somebody else even giving a name? 31 00:02:19.300 --> 00:02:22.580 Is that common for you? Oh, absolutely. You know, I 32 00:02:22.979 --> 00:02:28.060 think that it's it's really important for us to be considered trusted advisors as sales 33 00:02:28.139 --> 00:02:31.090 folks. So of course it goes back to sort of that honesty topic, 34 00:02:31.250 --> 00:02:36.250 but it's also a tactic to try to sort of try to maybe create some 35 00:02:36.370 --> 00:02:39.650 momentum with an opportunity of things are stolen out and you know, maybe there 36 00:02:39.810 --> 00:02:45.120 is a competitor who might might be a better fit or a competitive fit. 37 00:02:45.680 --> 00:02:51.759 Suggesting that somebody maybe go with a competitor is is almost playing hard to get 38 00:02:51.759 --> 00:02:54.240 sort of with with the prospect you know, go ahead and see what the 39 00:02:54.319 --> 00:02:58.280 other what the what the other folks on the market might be able to do. 40 00:02:58.479 --> 00:03:02.030 You'll be back alluding to that. I think is is is useful. 41 00:03:02.229 --> 00:03:07.789 However, they're also like situations where, if your solution really can't provide the 42 00:03:07.830 --> 00:03:14.060 value that the buyers looking for, better to maintain the relationship as a trusted 43 00:03:14.060 --> 00:03:19.580 advisor and consult them on on the proper solution at this point, because in 44 00:03:19.620 --> 00:03:23.780 the future they might come back for something else, they might need a different 45 00:03:23.780 --> 00:03:27.020 type of a solution in the future, and they're going to remember that client 46 00:03:27.099 --> 00:03:30.889 experience. They're going to remember that that person who they could trust and they'll 47 00:03:30.889 --> 00:03:32.930 come back. Yeah, I mean, the last time I gave a suggestion 48 00:03:34.009 --> 00:03:38.129 for a competitor, I actually got a netflix recommendation in return, which was 49 00:03:38.169 --> 00:03:40.090 kind of a win win for me, since that that was my weekend. 50 00:03:42.479 --> 00:03:45.439 That you never know. Yeah, I mean, Hey, you learn something 51 00:03:45.479 --> 00:03:50.759 every day. There's always there's always something funny that might happen on a call. 52 00:03:50.879 --> 00:03:53.400 That's not the outcome that you were looking for. And if it's good 53 00:03:53.439 --> 00:03:57.750 contents, good content. I'm sure you appreciate that a hundred percent. And 54 00:03:58.030 --> 00:03:59.870 I used to be like, look, if you're not going to buy, 55 00:03:59.870 --> 00:04:02.270 always go like by Linkedin Post. I need more traction. You know something, 56 00:04:02.389 --> 00:04:06.270 I need something the trade right, like you got to win something, 57 00:04:06.389 --> 00:04:11.219 you gotta you gotta score somehow. They're right. Yeah, and what is 58 00:04:11.259 --> 00:04:14.219 a common thing you might try to go for, like hey, this might 59 00:04:14.259 --> 00:04:15.899 not be a good fit, but maybe something else we can do together, 60 00:04:15.939 --> 00:04:18.740 or there something you can get out of the interaction? Yeah, I mean, 61 00:04:18.980 --> 00:04:21.860 you know, one thing that I tend to rely on as a sales 62 00:04:21.899 --> 00:04:27.129 leaders, if I noticed that we might be moving in a direction where we're 63 00:04:27.129 --> 00:04:30.970 not the best fit, I try to open up myself as a resource to 64 00:04:30.089 --> 00:04:34.889 maybe trying to help with workflows or anything internally for their sales leadershift team. 65 00:04:34.930 --> 00:04:39.480 Even with current customers, were doing this too. It's almost like an added 66 00:04:39.519 --> 00:04:43.199 bonus. With some of our some of our customers who are using like fringe 67 00:04:43.560 --> 00:04:46.680 features in the product and not really our core usage will like have a consultation 68 00:04:46.839 --> 00:04:51.560 conversation with antidox sales leadership, and it's really it's really fun for me because 69 00:04:51.600 --> 00:04:55.790 it's like you just kind of get to talk shop, similar to what we're 70 00:04:55.790 --> 00:04:59.910 doing here in the way where you're really just trying to speak with like minded 71 00:04:59.949 --> 00:05:03.509 individuals and learn something yourself as well. But yeah, I mean there's there's 72 00:05:03.550 --> 00:05:09.139 there's other ways you can do it too, like maybe share some content that's 73 00:05:09.139 --> 00:05:13.139 not relevant to the to the product that you were selling before, just to 74 00:05:13.259 --> 00:05:15.220 try to keep that kind of like relationship going. Like a thought of you 75 00:05:16.060 --> 00:05:20.449 here, something that maybe you I thought you might find interesting. It's sort 76 00:05:20.490 --> 00:05:25.490 of like light fishing where perhaps they are thinking of you and something changed on 77 00:05:25.529 --> 00:05:29.610 their and it's worth while to have another conversation or even a referral. You 78 00:05:29.689 --> 00:05:34.329 know, if you can maintain relationships interact with folks on social media you're going 79 00:05:34.370 --> 00:05:38.879 to start to see some stuff come back to you, even in those situations 80 00:05:38.959 --> 00:05:42.240 where it might have been a loss on that initial all it's so important to 81 00:05:42.279 --> 00:05:45.759 set up the boomerang. At I we get a lot of our business from 82 00:05:45.759 --> 00:05:48.439 boomerangs. I mean it feels like sometimes like forty percent of what I was 83 00:05:48.560 --> 00:05:53.670 closing with stuff that just came back, and it was sometimes a deal that 84 00:05:53.709 --> 00:05:57.629 I thought ended like pretty conclusively. There's no way we can move forward as 85 00:05:57.709 --> 00:06:00.069 is over, but I try to give them a decent experience at the end 86 00:06:00.110 --> 00:06:02.509 of it and the ended up coming back, and so you never know it's 87 00:06:02.550 --> 00:06:05.259 going to happen and that's why I think it's so important to just not be 88 00:06:05.939 --> 00:06:11.259 cool. Yeah, and that scenario, and especially when you're working in like, 89 00:06:11.459 --> 00:06:13.939 you know, the space that we're in, where we're a part of 90 00:06:14.019 --> 00:06:16.860 a text stack. You know, quite often people think about what they need 91 00:06:17.569 --> 00:06:21.329 and they just go to market evaluate a bunch of things and then they prioritize 92 00:06:21.370 --> 00:06:27.290 sort of the order with which those those evaluations might take place, generally crm 93 00:06:27.410 --> 00:06:31.490 being the number one project and the source of strain and stress during some sort 94 00:06:31.569 --> 00:06:35.920 of a transition like that. You know, added Bonus added value tools like 95 00:06:35.959 --> 00:06:41.519 Antodoc in that crm. You know, workflow might be project number two. 96 00:06:41.560 --> 00:06:43.720 So that's part of the reason why I think we see a lot of those 97 00:06:43.720 --> 00:06:47.310 boomerangs and if you're in that type of space, it's almost even more crucial 98 00:06:47.790 --> 00:06:51.350 for you to maintain that good that good customer relationship. I'm sure that's why 99 00:06:51.430 --> 00:06:55.389 you capitalized off of a lot of that stuff. was was due to your 100 00:06:55.430 --> 00:06:59.350 own your own flare and your own ability to build relationships with those folks a 101 00:06:59.709 --> 00:07:03.060 hundred percent and just sort of pivoting off of that. When you get back 102 00:07:03.100 --> 00:07:08.500 into that conversation and there's, you know, maybe a different competitors, a 103 00:07:08.540 --> 00:07:14.100 different conversation, how are you framing it right? What is your process when 104 00:07:14.139 --> 00:07:16.089 someone brings up a competitor? If it is a good fit and we're going 105 00:07:16.209 --> 00:07:19.009 head to head, like apples to apples, how do you sell? Well, 106 00:07:19.009 --> 00:07:26.930 I think it generally it's important to hear it and not react to aggressively. 107 00:07:27.009 --> 00:07:31.920 Almost it's like you should presume that your buyers are going to look at 108 00:07:32.000 --> 00:07:36.079 the competitors in your market right like if they're if they're a smart buy or 109 00:07:36.079 --> 00:07:41.680 they would do that. So don't be surprised when someone brings up a competitor 110 00:07:41.759 --> 00:07:44.790 on a call or even on a boomerang. In that situation, it's to 111 00:07:44.870 --> 00:07:48.350 be expected, right. So if you are prepared to hear that the competition 112 00:07:48.750 --> 00:07:53.110 is is, you know, potentially has a seat at that table, I 113 00:07:53.189 --> 00:07:58.740 think it's really important to do what we said before and and respect the buying 114 00:07:58.860 --> 00:08:03.019 process and give them a little bit of credit for the the way with which 115 00:08:03.060 --> 00:08:07.139 they're evaluating because, you know, you can even say what I just said. 116 00:08:07.180 --> 00:08:09.819 They're oh, yeah, of course you're an educated buyer like I would 117 00:08:09.819 --> 00:08:13.569 expect you to take a look at the competition and you know there's a reason 118 00:08:13.649 --> 00:08:18.449 that sign is the leader in the space. They have a great solution and 119 00:08:18.529 --> 00:08:22.649 they have an awesome, you know, chunk of the market for a reason. 120 00:08:22.850 --> 00:08:26.319 You know, like that's that's a pretty a pretty nonthreatening way to give 121 00:08:26.480 --> 00:08:31.959 the buyer a bit of a egostroke when you telling their doing a good job. 122 00:08:31.279 --> 00:08:35.200 And then, by the same token, if you listen to what that 123 00:08:35.399 --> 00:08:39.759 buyer is saying, there's nothing wrong with educating them in a transparent way about 124 00:08:39.200 --> 00:08:45.070 maybe the pitfalls of the of the competitors based on their workflow, and giving 125 00:08:45.110 --> 00:08:48.509 them a as close to an apples to apples comparison, but making sure that 126 00:08:48.590 --> 00:08:54.710 it's quite clear that we're comparing apples to oranges and specify that we're different for 127 00:08:54.830 --> 00:08:58.500 a reason and that's why you want to go with us. Yeah, and 128 00:08:58.940 --> 00:09:03.379 on your point of when people are kind of like patting your ego little bit. 129 00:09:03.419 --> 00:09:07.139 I was on a demo once. I mentioned that we were using a 130 00:09:07.220 --> 00:09:09.409 competitor already and he was just like, dude, that's awesome. I'm so 131 00:09:09.570 --> 00:09:13.129 glad you already know where you're shooting, like you already hit the bulls eye, 132 00:09:13.490 --> 00:09:16.529 like I want to help you like go even further. Yeah, I 133 00:09:16.570 --> 00:09:20.250 have to say that it's generally a positive for me if I hear someone bring 134 00:09:20.289 --> 00:09:26.600 up the COMP competition early stages, for sure, because your buyers much more 135 00:09:26.639 --> 00:09:30.159 educated. That's going to make your job a lot easier. Sometimes that's a 136 00:09:30.200 --> 00:09:35.000 double edged sword because you start talking about how we're different specifically, and that's 137 00:09:35.039 --> 00:09:37.710 not really the conversation you want to have. The conversation you want to have 138 00:09:37.909 --> 00:09:43.789 is understand what the buyer needs, how you can solve that problem and confidently 139 00:09:43.909 --> 00:09:46.990 put forward that our product is the right thing, regardless of that external that 140 00:09:48.190 --> 00:09:54.139 external factor. But sometimes it's tough to to get somebody's mind off of a 141 00:09:54.259 --> 00:09:58.580 competitor if they came from it right. So like a transition from a competition 142 00:09:58.779 --> 00:10:03.659 to, say, panted doc on a renewal. Sometimes those conversations are a 143 00:10:03.659 --> 00:10:09.009 little bit more difficult because you're really trying to give them a vision that's different 144 00:10:09.049 --> 00:10:11.610 than something that they're used to. So it's a little bit more subtle in 145 00:10:11.690 --> 00:10:16.529 that situation. Yeah, and I think it's always good to also ask challenging 146 00:10:16.649 --> 00:10:20.370 questions of people when they bring up a competitor. Sometimes they'll Ba hey, 147 00:10:20.440 --> 00:10:24.279 patrick, how are you different from sign? And I say yet, have 148 00:10:24.360 --> 00:10:28.080 you seen a demo yet? And they say yes and I go, okay, 149 00:10:28.080 --> 00:10:30.080 I got a question for you. Do you mind? It's like now, 150 00:10:30.240 --> 00:10:33.159 okay, well, I'm curious why you didn't just buy you sign on 151 00:10:33.200 --> 00:10:37.190 the spot. Love it. Just get them to tell you what is missing, 152 00:10:37.269 --> 00:10:41.629 because if someone's talking to you still they're looking for something else that they 153 00:10:41.669 --> 00:10:45.789 didn't see someone else. It's like I didn't have this. Great now we 154 00:10:45.870 --> 00:10:50.379 can have an actual conversation instead of me just reading off a competitive Intel report 155 00:10:50.860 --> 00:10:54.379 that you could just see on the website and that feels so much different to 156 00:10:54.580 --> 00:10:58.340 than just like being told we're better, we're different, we do all these 157 00:10:58.379 --> 00:11:01.700 different things. You know, there you've open sourced that conversation to an extent 158 00:11:01.820 --> 00:11:07.889 and that buyer feels like they're involved and they almost convinced themselves of why they're 159 00:11:07.889 --> 00:11:11.929 here, as opposed to having having moved forward with that competitor. So I 160 00:11:11.009 --> 00:11:15.250 love that. Yeah, I don't think anyone's ever convinced me of anything. 161 00:11:15.289 --> 00:11:18.480 They've only ever tricked me into convincing myself to do it. That's the only 162 00:11:18.519 --> 00:11:22.279 time it's ever worked. So you got to think at the same way how 163 00:11:22.320 --> 00:11:26.480 you react to things as how your buyers going to react, and everyone's human. 164 00:11:26.840 --> 00:11:31.600 Yeah, you're right. So, on the spirit of winning, do 165 00:11:31.679 --> 00:11:35.509 you have any stand out stories of when you did end up like basting a 166 00:11:35.549 --> 00:11:37.629 competitor, like the last moment or something that you might want to share? 167 00:11:37.669 --> 00:11:43.590 Yeah, there was a good one. That was actually on New Year's Eve 168 00:11:45.509 --> 00:11:48.580 two years ago. We were on call with can't say the customer, so 169 00:11:48.659 --> 00:11:54.340 I won't do that, but I really call with a relatively fast growing HR 170 00:11:54.539 --> 00:12:01.250 software company and it was it was a pretty straightforward use case that was certainly 171 00:12:01.450 --> 00:12:09.049 coming down to pricing, it seemed in this in this conversation and our prospect 172 00:12:09.649 --> 00:12:13.289 he he made it very clear that it was strictly price and it wasn't customer 173 00:12:13.330 --> 00:12:20.600 experience, that that that they were buying for. So instead of, you 174 00:12:20.720 --> 00:12:24.080 know, asking for their quote from the competitor and trying to undercut that and 175 00:12:24.200 --> 00:12:30.190 maybe give a different price, we ended up talking about that customer experience instead 176 00:12:30.950 --> 00:12:33.629 and we said, you guys are growing, you're going to end up expanding 177 00:12:33.950 --> 00:12:41.389 on your instance over the next twelve months and we're positive that in year two, 178 00:12:41.669 --> 00:12:43.860 if you were to go with the competition, you're not going to have 179 00:12:43.980 --> 00:12:48.580 as scalable price point as you might think. And you know, due to 180 00:12:48.700 --> 00:12:54.460 the trust that we had built during that that sale cycle, instead of this 181 00:12:54.659 --> 00:13:01.090 buyer, you know, doing his research and actually going back to kind and 182 00:13:01.289 --> 00:13:05.769 asking for a better deal or a more scalable price, they trusted us that 183 00:13:05.929 --> 00:13:09.850 we were going to actually help them scale their instance as they were growing and 184 00:13:09.929 --> 00:13:13.600 they were cash conscience as a start up. And while it seemed like it 185 00:13:13.720 --> 00:13:16.919 had to do a price on this specific deal and maybe we could have came 186 00:13:18.000 --> 00:13:20.639 down on that price to try to win it, we learned that it was 187 00:13:20.720 --> 00:13:26.120 much more the bigger picture of the scaling price and and due to trust. 188 00:13:26.669 --> 00:13:30.669 You know, he took us at face value for that statement, which was 189 00:13:30.789 --> 00:13:33.230 true. We weren't lying to him, but due to trust, I do 190 00:13:33.429 --> 00:13:37.990 believe that that's that's how we got that that proposal sell. Why do you 191 00:13:37.029 --> 00:13:41.100 think you trusted? You Will Patrick, I think you know, at least 192 00:13:41.139 --> 00:13:46.059 from working with me for a few years now, that I have more of 193 00:13:46.139 --> 00:13:50.379 a challenger style and there were multiple instances where the Rep looped me in for 194 00:13:50.700 --> 00:13:56.929 an authority conversation during the sale cycle and you know, by the time we're 195 00:13:56.970 --> 00:14:01.090 on that that final call, I had somewhat of a reputation with this buying 196 00:14:01.129 --> 00:14:05.289 committee. That wasn't necessarily negative, but it was pretty clear that I was 197 00:14:05.370 --> 00:14:09.889 kind of being the task master, almost. But but because I owned that 198 00:14:09.080 --> 00:14:13.639 role early on in the cycle, I feel like the buyers knew that, 199 00:14:13.279 --> 00:14:18.360 while I might be a little brazen in the way that I approach something, 200 00:14:18.759 --> 00:14:20.279 that the words that are coming out of my mouth they could take to the 201 00:14:20.360 --> 00:14:24.110 bank. So I do think that's that's really why they trusted us in that 202 00:14:24.190 --> 00:14:28.389 situation. It's amazing and don't worry, I can believe about the competitor and 203 00:14:28.389 --> 00:14:31.789 name Post. We'll leave this part in those that people are like, who 204 00:14:31.950 --> 00:14:35.830 was it? And you could just pay me directly or, like, on 205 00:14:35.909 --> 00:14:41.860 my linkedin don't worry. But I'd like to leave on something that I think 206 00:14:41.899 --> 00:14:46.620 is really important. When people are starting in sales, they oftentimes just kind 207 00:14:46.659 --> 00:14:50.379 of like do what feels natural, and unfortunately selling is not natural. So 208 00:14:50.539 --> 00:14:54.730 what feels natural usually doesn't work. So what are some common mistakes that you 209 00:14:54.809 --> 00:14:58.889 see people making when they're selling as competitor when they're new, that you want 210 00:14:58.929 --> 00:15:03.490 them to avoid so they never have to have that terrible experience? It's a 211 00:15:03.570 --> 00:15:07.399 great question and to bring it back to a metaphor that's pretty tried and true 212 00:15:07.960 --> 00:15:11.600 in sales lingo. Like think about it is if you were an according situation 213 00:15:11.879 --> 00:15:16.720 with somebody that you're interested in. Right, that individual might be interested in 214 00:15:16.840 --> 00:15:20.080 somebody else too, but they can't really make a decision between you and the 215 00:15:20.200 --> 00:15:24.669 competition in this situation. Right. Well, the person who's like actually interested 216 00:15:24.750 --> 00:15:31.750 in and maybe getting to know that other person for the right reasons is probably 217 00:15:31.870 --> 00:15:35.620 not going to tell them that they're stupid for considering somebody else that they like. 218 00:15:37.179 --> 00:15:41.419 Right like. That's that's almost that's almost dissing yourself. It's like you're 219 00:15:41.500 --> 00:15:43.659 looking at this guy, you like me too, but then you're going to 220 00:15:43.700 --> 00:15:48.100 start talking trash about that that competition. In the moment it feels like that's 221 00:15:48.100 --> 00:15:52.289 the right thing to do because you're in your like fight or flight, almost 222 00:15:52.330 --> 00:15:54.929 like Oh, I want to win this right now, I need to I 223 00:15:54.009 --> 00:15:58.210 need to start talking smack about the competitors. It's like, well, maybe 224 00:15:58.289 --> 00:16:03.649 it's better to educate about the competitors, maybe what you know, or maybe 225 00:16:03.649 --> 00:16:07.399 even bring in some empathy, like I understand why you might be interested in 226 00:16:07.000 --> 00:16:11.279 something like that, at least in that in that situation. If in fact, 227 00:16:11.360 --> 00:16:15.320 you do lose the first the first go around here, you still might 228 00:16:15.360 --> 00:16:19.350 be in it for the long haul because you are open and honest in that 229 00:16:19.470 --> 00:16:23.470 first and direction. Hundred percent. That's what the boomerangs come into. So 230 00:16:25.389 --> 00:16:30.110 don't be too desperate, don't smack talk. Pause. I think that's a 231 00:16:30.190 --> 00:16:34.179 big one. When you hear objections and bring up a competitor, you agree 232 00:16:34.220 --> 00:16:41.779 that's an objection indeed. I mean it's definitely something you need to you need 233 00:16:41.860 --> 00:16:45.059 to hone in on. It's not something that you can ignore. It's definitely 234 00:16:47.139 --> 00:16:49.690 at least grounds for an objection in the future. At the very least. 235 00:16:49.970 --> 00:16:52.769 I Seen Reps. they here docus in the God. All right, cool. 236 00:16:52.809 --> 00:16:55.929 So, like, what are you doing right now for your proposal system? 237 00:16:56.169 --> 00:16:57.690 And it's like none. Now, like, hold on for a second. 238 00:16:59.450 --> 00:17:02.159 That's important and it's going to bite in the ASS. So so, 239 00:17:02.919 --> 00:17:06.799 when you hear that pause and really think, because if you're talking to somebody 240 00:17:07.279 --> 00:17:11.920 and they're immediately just coming at you as soon as you stopped speaking, one, 241 00:17:11.960 --> 00:17:14.359 it's pretty clear you weren't actually listening, you were just waiting to talk 242 00:17:15.319 --> 00:17:18.269 to it seems like you're incredibly scripted and you're just saying what someone else told 243 00:17:18.269 --> 00:17:22.349 you to do, which comes off as fake. And three, it's usually 244 00:17:22.390 --> 00:17:26.069 not the right thing because you didn't think about it and just blurted something out. 245 00:17:26.390 --> 00:17:27.950 Yep. So I think I can a great way to put it is 246 00:17:29.029 --> 00:17:33.740 like is don't be too aggressive, like you're going to scare the fish away. 247 00:17:33.819 --> 00:17:37.059 To an extent, that situation, you know, strip line, baby, 248 00:17:37.299 --> 00:17:41.299 you know I want the sailor stuff. Well, this is fun, 249 00:17:41.380 --> 00:17:45.170 Mike. That's all the questions I have for you. Just to like highlights 250 00:17:45.250 --> 00:17:48.690 some takeaways. Think about your competitors is like fierce warriors. I think that 251 00:17:48.970 --> 00:17:52.769 we need to have respect for the people we sell against, because capitalism, 252 00:17:52.809 --> 00:17:56.450 baby free market, who wouldn't be here if it wasn't for them? Having 253 00:17:56.450 --> 00:18:00.240 a process, pausing and just making sure that you're you're thinking really hard, 254 00:18:00.279 --> 00:18:03.079 I think, for you under the conversation. Is there anything else you would 255 00:18:03.079 --> 00:18:07.839 add sort of stackaways? No, I mean like for just a quick takeaway 256 00:18:07.920 --> 00:18:11.119 on that. It's almost like, you know sports. You know you're not 257 00:18:11.240 --> 00:18:15.589 going to become the best that you possibly can be unless somebody else is pushing 258 00:18:15.630 --> 00:18:18.990 you and is actually fighting for that same spot. So you do need to 259 00:18:18.069 --> 00:18:22.630 respect your competitors and actually appreciate them at a very general level, and I 260 00:18:22.670 --> 00:18:26.750 think if you take that attitude into calls, you're going to you're going to 261 00:18:26.750 --> 00:18:29.460 avoid a lot of the pits balls that come along with, you know, 262 00:18:29.859 --> 00:18:34.099 conversations around competitors a hundred percent. And in the spirit of that. Is 263 00:18:34.140 --> 00:18:38.259 there anything you want to plug? Oh, I mean, yeah, why 264 00:18:38.339 --> 00:18:45.250 not? Speaking of competition, if you're currently unhappy with your your provider for 265 00:18:45.490 --> 00:18:52.930 proposal workflows, are you signature Panta doc is a as a as a bit 266 00:18:52.970 --> 00:18:56.880 of a promotion during Covid we're matching all those prices. If you're unhappy right 267 00:18:56.920 --> 00:19:00.000 now, so come and get a better customer experience, if you're sick of 268 00:19:00.039 --> 00:19:03.519 the jug or not, and come see what we're all about. Sign up 269 00:19:03.559 --> 00:19:07.480 for a chop. I love it. Thank you for that and thanks to 270 00:19:07.559 --> 00:19:10.789 everybody for listening to this episode of the B Tob Growth Show. Again. 271 00:19:10.869 --> 00:19:12.750 I'm your cohost, Patrick downs, the eternal sales and ablement trainer, a 272 00:19:12.789 --> 00:19:18.430 PANTADOC. Please connect with me on Linkedin. Desperate for I need more followers. 273 00:19:18.509 --> 00:19:21.789 I eat them up and I'm happy to answer any questions provide recommendations. 274 00:19:22.190 --> 00:19:25.099 If you like the episode, are of a question, please join the discussion 275 00:19:25.539 --> 00:19:27.460 on instagram. It's be to be gross. Thank you, guys, and 276 00:19:27.500 --> 00:19:30.420 have a great day. This episode is brought to you by Panda Doc. 277 00:19:30.740 --> 00:19:34.660 Sending your documents is pds through email is super old school. It's time to 278 00:19:34.779 --> 00:19:38.690 while this socks off your prospects, clients and colleagues by creating, sending, 279 00:19:38.730 --> 00:19:42.930 tracking and e signing with Panda Doc. Go to panda doccom slash be to 280 00:19:42.970 --> 00:19:48.130 be today and start a completely free trial. No credit card required.