Hey, Chris here. Welcome to the 164th Floor. Each week I answer reader questions about closing more deals, bigger deals, negotiation. You name it. It's the weekly advice column to help you become the top 1% at sales. Send me your questions and I’ll give actionable real-talk advice. On to this week’s question.

Q: When selling against larger, more established vendors, how do I level the playing field? What strategies help smaller players win against industry giants?

I’ve had a chip on my shoulder since I was a teenager. Something to prove.

I played basketball with older kids for money.

This parlayed into me playing poker against industry veterans.

I picked fights with the school bullies.

Nothing gets my juices flowing more than winning when I’m not supposed to.

Winning when you’re not supposed to.

Winning against those everyone else is scared to play against.

My entire career has been built on picking fights against the Goliaths, playing my role as a much smaller, smarter, more savvy David.

And today’s newsletter is exactly about that.

Here’s my promise by end of reading:

1. Why you need to learn to sell against Goliaths

2. The mistakes you’re making

3. What to do instead

4. Weekly challenge to implement today

Let’s get into it.

Why you need to learn to sell against Goliaths

If you can’t beat ‘em, you’re forced to join ‘em.

You’re a reader of the 164th Floor. My assumption is you are against the status quo. You don’t want to be employee #4674.

You want your sales to matter.

Working for a Goliath is commoditizing. You have bureaucracy throughout. Unless you are a political savant, your career and potential will be left up to your senior manager.

Problem? If you’re a top 1% salesperson, the senior manager is threatened by you and will do everything to make the people around you seem better than they are.

If you aren’t going to work for Goliaths, you better know how to sell against them.

Reason #2 you want to learn to sell against Goliaths.

Money.

Goliaths are Goliaths because they are huge. Massive companies. With lots of customers. Customers that you can be serving. Customers that can be disrupted.

When you are a David, everyone is your prospect.

When you are a Goliath, your prospects are limited to your target companies subtracted any current (or not in your territory).

Can you take 10% of a Goliath’s market share?

5%?

What would that mean for you? For your commission & career?

Think about it this way...

What would your boss say if you closed a whale account away from the industry leader?

What would your significant other say?

The mistakes you’re making

I’ve always found it easier to know what not to do than what to do.

Want to lose weight? Don’t eat chips, cookies, and soda.

Before I show you what to do, let’s talk about the mistakes you’re making.

Pricing Wars

The worst thing you can do when selling against a Goliath is lower your prices.

It’s a losing game.

They can sell at a loss to make sure you don’t gain market share.

You are playing a game that they are set up to win.

They have 10-100-1000x the revenues of you.

You are playing right into them.

Features, features, and more features

Stop trying to go toe-to-toe on all the features.

Launching a CRM? You don’t want more features than Salesforce.

Instead of focusing on same, talk through different.

This is how you need to think through your product.

“The same, but cheaper”

I’ve watched sales people do this forever. Actually, that’s not fair. I’ve watched CEOs, Founders, Board Members do it forever.

Positioning themselves as a cheaper version of the big player.

You aren’t the same, but cheaper.

You are smaller.

Riskier.

With no social cred.

Position yourself as high value, not a commodity.

What to do instead

Disclaimer: This part should twist your brain up & make it tired. Read it fast once. Read it slower a second time. Read it a third time and highlight the most interesting parts.

The 4th time? Summarize what I said to do.

Focus on You

You’ll say this is a cop out. It’s not. When you’re up against a Goliath, the biggest differentiator is you.

Your ability to twist the minds of your prospects. Make them think differently about their problem. From a different angle.

Are you showing them a potential fatal miss? Giving them a chance to dominate their industry?

What questions are you asking the prospect that Goliath isn’t?

How much is your experience and thoughts worth to your prospect?

Is it more than the Goliath?

If it’s not, then why go with you?

Quick story.

25 years old I was selling for a company that had $800,000 in sales. I was selling against Sealed Air ($5B market cap today)

$5B company versus $800k in sales

The deal against them was worth $9mm.

We won.

I was 38% more expensive.

I gave worst credit terms.

And I had a longer lead time.

After the contract was signed, I asked them “why’d you pick us?”

“You asked us questions that made us think, that no one else has ever asked us.”

It wasn’t David.

It wasn’t Goliath.

It was me.

Attack Agility

It’s summertime. Let’s define agility through boats.

Big company = Cruise ship

Small company = Speed boat

A speed boat can move and act in ways that a cruise ship simply cannot.

It can do things that a cruise ship cannot.

Do you know those things?

Does your prospect value those things?

Do they even know the difference between the two of them?

You need to ask questions that give insights into what’s important to them.

Do they have cruise ship problems?

Speed boat problems?

Maybe both?

Top to Top

People buy from people. People buy people.

You’ve heard me say it before, people buy emotionally than rationalize logically.

Is the F500 CEO getting on a call with their salesperson to help close a deal? Maybe. Not in my experience though.

That’s emotional.

Does the customer of the F500 company even know the CEO? Does the CEO even know them?

“No”

Leverage this. When selling against a Goliath, bring in your senior leaders.

CEOs, CTOs, CGOs, or whatever other acronyms you got for the big wigs in your org.

Bring them into your deals.

Introduce them to the CEO of your prospect’s company.

Leaders call this “top to top”

I call it “People who can say yes, when everyone else says no” talking.

When you have two people talking who can both say yes, good things happen.

Emotional things happen.

Sales happen.

One helpful tactic I’ve prepped my CEOs with ahead of the call is to ask this question...

“When you talked with the CEO of [current vendor], were your visions on future aligned?”

or some version of that.

Cognitive dissonance happens when they say “I haven’t talked with their CEO.”

“Oh, are top-to-top CEO-to-CEO calls with your vendors something not in the strategy?”

And now.. they are selling you.

Weekly Challenge

This week it’s about beating the Goliaths you’re up against.

If you aren’t selling against a company bigger than you, you’re only homework is to email me back “Why not?” and to go find some prospects to service.

For the rest of you, let’s get into it.

1. Open a Google Doc

2. Get a list of your deals where you’re up against a Goliath

3. Answer these 5 questions:

   1. “What insights/questions/ideas do I bring to a company that I could charge $1000 per hour for?”

   2. “How often am I sharing these insights/ideas/questions with companies?”

   3. “What cruise boat problems do my prospects have, versus speed boat problems?”

   4. “How can I develop a co-selling strategy with the c-suite? Why haven’t I done it yet? If I have, how could I have set it up better?”

   5. “Who is the largest Goliath competitor I have? Who is their 3-5 largest companies? How can I get a meeting with them?”

Until next week,

Chris

PS - I announced a joint venture with Rick Roberge last week.

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