How to Beat the Competition: Strategies for Startup Sales Success

Name: How to Beat the Competition: Strategies for Startup Sales Success
Uploaded: 2024-02-14T17:07:42+00:00
Duration: 34 s
Channel: Jason M. Lemkin
Description: In this segment of his talk, Jason M. Lemkin explains why salespeople who lack experience in competitive markets often “melt” and give up when faced with…

14 Feb 2024 · 1 min

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In this segment of his talk, Jason M. Lemkin explains why salespeople who lack experience in competitive markets often “melt” and give up when faced with many rivals. He stresses that even if a competitor is larger—whether ten, a hundred, or a thousand times bigger—they are not superior at everything. Successful startup salespeople therefore identify and double‑down on the specific capabilities where they excel, while being honest about weaker areas. Lemkin advises that these differentiators should surface early in the discovery process, using targeted questions such as “What do you care about?” If a startup’s unique advantage is an integration with Zoom that competitors lack, that should be highlighted immediately to position the company favorably against the competition.

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And I find that folks that have not worked in competitive environments— and this is important in sales— they melt in competitive environments. They just don't know what to say when there's 100 competitors. Got it. And they just quit. They're like, ah, I lost the deal. Our competitor's better than us. Well, hold on. If you got to a million in revenue, and even if your competitor's at 10 or 100 or 1,000, they're not better than you at everything, are they? There's something you're better at. And the great sales folks that are startups know how to hone in on what they're really good at. And be honest but sort of buff away some of the weaknesses, right? And they ask, what do you care about? If the only thing you do well is integrate with Zoom and the competition doesn't, it's in your first discovery questions.