What do you do when your competition targets your business with a ferocity that includes bare-boned pricing and relentless selling? You could panic. That strategy wont protect your business. This one will. At some point a competitor will be strong enough to try to take your business. It may seem grim. Yet even in this tough situation, it is not as bad as you think.

Where are you weakest?

When you first realize a competitor is making a massive assault on your business, you must take immediate action. You know you have a problem. Analyze your territory and determine where your vulnerabilities are. A competitor who builds a distribution warehouse in your territory is now strongest in the geography closest to that warehouse. That competitor also has an urgent need to fill the distribution center with business. Locate your customers who are closest to that new warehouse and contact them first. Heres where its best to make a face-to-face sales call, instead of a phone call, which might be easier for you. If you telephone your customer you will miss the cues that you can see. Perhaps the customer doesnt really want to change. You can see more of their doubt when youre in the office. You might ask to see the competitions quote so you can better judge the entire offering. Terms could be different. Your customer might not tell you this on the phone. Before the meeting, ask yourself why these vulnerable customers should continue to do business with you. Be prepared to talk about this in the meeting. Even though the balance of power has changed relative to your competition, you can still find strengths by examining your business.

On sale later.

A customer may say the competition is offering a lower price. Too many times a salesperson hears that the customer is asking for the salesperson to do the same. Pricing is your last option, not your first option. Listening and questioning are the skills that youre going to need, especially now. Remember to remain calm and ask questions about the competitors complete offer. Your questioning will uncover whether the offer is meeting all of your customers needs. If youve done your job you should know more about your customer than your competitor does. Your services may include more than what your competitor can offer. That should be worth paying for. Your job is to execute your questioning strategy and uncover those areas that you believe are your customers concerns. When your customers answer your questions, the answers will result in a better understanding of their needs. If you find no reason to pay more, you can adjust your price. Just make sure that if you are offering a better service, your price is still slightly more.

Plant the seeds of doubt.

When your competitors call on your accounts, theyre going to be painting the best picture of their service to your customer. All their talking doesnt make it fact. They are still the unproven candidate while you are the proven one. Your job is to show the customer why the risk is greater to switch to a lower cost supplier who is unproven. Use your strengths that youve identified to plant the seeds of doubt. If the competition is unable to be as strong as you are, an opportunity exists for customer dissatisfaction. How will losing your strength impact your customers business? Remember the customer doesnt know what the customer doesnt know. Your job is to show him what he could be missing.

If youve been taking care of your customers they will need more than just pricing to make a switch. Low pricing will get your customers attention. Just make sure your competitions low pricing gets your attention too.