A short YouTube talk by Jason M. Lemkin advising salespeople/founders to 'take control of the conversation' by leading with what uniquely differentiates them and why it matters. The speaker recommends starting with your differentiators (without naming competitors) so you avoid being defensive and instead guide the buyer’s evaluation process.
One of the first things that comes to mind is something around. This is a strong word, but taking control of the conversation and really starting with here is how we are different and why that matters. I think that you, if you are behind on that, if you are talking with somebody who already believes from a competitor why they are different and why that matters, you're on, like, your back foot and you're playing, you're being defensive. And so I think you really want to be in that sort of lead position where you are controlling the conversation and you don't even have to bring up a competitor's name. I think you just really want to focus on what differentiates you and why that matters and have that sort of be core to the evaluation process that your buyer is going through.
