Whilst working with a financial services client, I took a look at their competitor’s brochure. My client wanted to know what I thought about the design and content.
For the most part, the tone of the brochure was what I call 5-star hotel speech:
“Here at the Prestige Park Plaza, we’re dedicated to making your stay…”
Smooth, bold statements but rarely saying anything effective, with little differentiation I could put my finger on or make a buying decision about. I should say I have nothing against hotel concierges at all and I should start calling it the AI hotel speech.
Anyway, what got me about this brochure was the following sentence:
“This provides us with a more informed understanding of the [certification body] than our competitors, ensuring that we offer our clients solutions that are most appropriate to their needs.”
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. What did you just say?
I generally do not recommend that B2B consultants mention their competition AT ALL for these reasons. Firstly, why spend time engaging with a lead only to remind them of an alternative to your service? Secondly, when mentioning the competition you rarely ever sound anything other than:
1. Bitter
2. Scared
3. Sniffy (for my non-English speaking friends, let’s say reinflant or estirada)
Yes, I know that many SaaS engage in a style of industry roundup listicle where they name a bunch of industry rivals but happen to slip their name in at the top or the bottom of the list. Aside from the disingenuous nature of this type of article, we all know what they’re doing and you just give the reader more ideas than you want them to have.
Hardly the smooth, confident concierge.
Finally, this brochure has the slightly insulting suggestion that should the reader (as the buyer) possibly consider using a competitor’s services then you’d be making a big mistake. It’s condescending towards your intended client and presumptuous; perhaps they wouldn’t be making a mistake in choosing a rival firm. That rival firm maybe perfect for them.
Are there any times when mentioning a competitor would be appropriate? When you are face-to-face, later down the sales funnel and they raise the subject. Perhaps your lead has mentioned a competitor’s name to price-shop. At that point, it’s unavoidable. But before this happens, let’s stick to being in a field of one. You.
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