Customer Reviews

How to Get Your Competition Fired (Without Saying Anything Bad About Them): Using The Wedge to Increase Your Sales

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

If you are practitioner of Commercial Property and Casualty Insurance or are in any way exposed to the sales side of it, this is a must-read book. I would go so far to say that if you are in any industry where in order to get new business, you must unseat an incumbent, this is a must-read book.

Many books related to sales are highly complex thought exercises that have not been tested in the real world. Some of the nuance is appreciated because I have actually successfully performed at this job in the insurance business for the past 25+ years.

Randy Schwantz's comprehensive approach to dealing with the harsh realities of competition is most refreshing. Most specifically, I am impressed with how the Wedge technique deals directly with unseating the competition. Also notable are the questioning techniques and the methods by which Randy gets strategic information about both you and the incumbent into the discussion without being an attack dog. I have sporadically used my own versions of a few of Randy's techniques for years but am thrilled to see how Randy pulls it all together for us.

This is an excellent tactical level how-to book; my copy is already dog-eared and highlighted throughout.

I confess that I made a mistake buying this book at an airport on a whim without reading any reviews online. I've read several books on selling, and this one is the worst, mostly because it's very diluted with filler material that adds no value but makes the book look sizeable.

The idea of the book is create a 'wedge' between you and your competition by having a proactive sales / support strategy. While this idea sounds nice, at the end of the day this 224 page book's only real content to "get your competition fired" is a set of six fill in the blank questions that you can, "apply to any sales opportunity"

This book is fluff, plain & simple. Don't waste your time.

This is, by far, the most powerful book I've ever read on marketing - as it relates to my profession as a financial planner. However, I would think this book would easily translate for anyone in the service industry.

How to Get Your Competition Fired realizes and addresses a problem most books on marketing don't. That is the fact that in most cases; your prospect is already dealing with your competition. Many of the books on marketing I've read through the years neglect this one detail; but it's an important detail.

In my profession, almost all of my clients were dealing with another financial planner before working with me. After readign Randy's book, I've found it much easier to cast myself in a more favorable light, show prospects how I deliver better service with greater value, and then - most importantly - how to prepare them to leave their present advisor.

Many of you in the servie industry probably have run into the situation where you find a prospect who you can help. Your competition has not been providing very good service. The prospect tells you they are ready to come on board. Then, the next call you get is to tell you that they are staying with your competition.

If many of your prospective clients are currently dealing with your competition, you can't afford to miss reading this book!

In the course of my career I have read many sales books some good some bad. How to Get Your Competition Fired falls squarely into the good category. It is a book that I will read again and again. I found three core truths that I think are so often overlooked by sales professionals. First, in the world we live in today Features, Advantages and Benefits do not win the day. Even in the technology arena people by from people they like and who give them superior service. The second truth is even more fundamental yet also overlooked. You have to let the customer figure out they are unhappy. That is the strenght of the wedge. You are not tricking them with slick closing techniques or gimmicks you are enabling them to take a fresh look at the service they receive and judge it accordingly. Finally, the foundational principle of doing your homework and knowing your accounts. Randy brings in multiple sources for research and various areas to review when researching an account. As I said this is not just a one-time read, it is a reference.

I had heard a few really good things about this book. Unfortunately it was like watching the trailers for a mediocre movie on TV and then going to the movies - you know the rest, all the good stuff was seen in the 30 second preview.

Being fair though, there is a point or two that makes a lot of sense - perhaps even an ah-ha moment. However, you'll get all you need out of this book in the first half. The second half of the book really disappoints in that we have the same items repeated over and over again. Did I say the second half of the book has the same items repeated over and over again?

If have been in the insurance industry for 12 years, but have just recently switched to the sales side of insurance. I have read Randy's first book "The Wedge", attended his training class and have now read this book. They have all provided me with the knowledge and confidence to be successful in selling insurance. Randy helps seperate you from the competition. I feel anyone can walk into a business, get rejected, and then walk out. This book gives you a step by step process on making quality visits, instead of quanity. I am already starting to have successes and feel it will only get better as I become more comfortable with the process.

I thought this would be another one of those old sales techniques made to work today, but that's not what this book is. The author has it dead right and explains how to get your competition fired without saying anything bad about them (thus the tiltle) in an awesome way. If you are in sales and your prospect has a current vendor or supplier this stuff really works. Try it and your business will increase. The book is an easy read and full of examples. All I can say is you have to read this book and you won't be disappointed.

This is the best of Randy's books. It's clean, simple, and very effective. Buy this and Red Hot Introdutions and you'll be set with some good material.

How To Get Your Competition Fired advances the idea of The Wedge, a sales methodology that not only takes the prospect into consideration, but also places an emphasis on the need to deal with existing incumbent or in-progress competitive pressures. Randy Schwantz honed his sales skills in the insurance industry; however, one cannot see why the ideas and scripts in his book would not apply to other industries. Speaking of scripts, Schwantz is adamant early on that he will offer concrete and tangible examples, which he fulfils. The book was provided to me by an ethusiastic CEO, which encouraged me to read it.

The Wedge, therefore, focuses on dislodging the competition or dethroning the current provider. The difference, however, is the book's emphasis that the process should happen at the customer's own volition. As the seller drives the process and executes the script, the customer is driven to ask for the seller's goods or services. It is a risky proposition - claiming that a regimented and scripted approach applies universally - but there is much to conceptually like here.

The book's core premise is that consultative selling is limited in scope with its emphasis of a two-way dynamic in sales, namely that of the buyer and the seller. The situation, this book emphasizes, is more akin to a triangle. Competition exists and ignoring it, or not giving it equal consideration, is not clever. Good point.

The first step for a seller is to know his competitive advantage. With competition possibilities on price or product being unlikely or limited the emphasis falls upon service, of which the author insists on the proactive kind, which the customer currently does not see from its provider. As such, the demonstration of the differentiator begins now even before a sale has been agreed to. It is time to showcase what the possibilities are, what is not currently being delivered and what the opportunity cost of staying with the current provider is. In the comparison game, the contrast is amplified when the prospect sees the gap between service currently offered and what could be. This is partly why a direct criticism of the competition is ill-advised. The emphasis, again, is on allowing the customer to connect the dots independently. The big question is how to get the prospect to feel negatively towards the current provider? The answer flows from the pro-active service possibility and vision that the seller helps create. The customers need to know that they are under-served. Once this vision is initiated, the pain is leveraged as The Wedge. The possibility of getting the pain to go away forms the reason why the customer will begin to believe it is time for a change. This is facilitated through giving the customer control and predictability. How? First, by conducting extensive pre-sales research. Asking question is next, but one must beware of customers fudging on the truth or not being able to articulate their pain. Much of the emphasis here goes towards knowing the competition and the type of experience it is providing the coveted customer. This is where the suggested script comes into play.

Armed with this information the book recommends pivoting this information into a picture of a pro-active service including allowing the prospect to draw (imagine) a picture of your superior service. The Wedge aims to allow the customer to have a picture in mind, feel the pain of missing the superb service and thus expecting it and soon asking for it. As a psychological concept pain avoidance is a bigger motivator than seeking pleasure and therefore without felt pain there is little chance of a win.

The research before the direct interaction includes: 1- our strengths versus the competitors, 2- our weakness versus the competition's strength and 3- our strengths versus the competition's weaknesses. It is with number three that ensures one a win.

The Wedge Sales Calls has the following steps including example scripts, which follow the research and making the customer feel comfortable with you:

1- Picture Perfect (where the customer is to draw a mental picture). "I'm curious. When you receive (name of service) so that you don't have to worry about (the pain), are you comfortable with the process?"
2- Take Away (where the rosy picture you drew of your service is yanked away - in line with the above-mentioned supremacy of pain avoidance). "Well, perhaps it's not that important because (give any reason)." You repeatedly tell the customer that you are momentarily setting each issue aside as it is not very important.
3- Vision Box (allow the customer to tell you). "In regard to (area of concern), what would you like to see happen?"
4- Replay (emphasis). "Here's what I'm hearing you say you want (repeating what the prospect said in Vision Box). Have I got that right?"
5- White Flag (the customer is now saying it). "So what would you like me to do?" In this section delivering a proposal is not enough and should be refused as a stand-alone next step. For the proposal to be accepted the customer must be willing to fire the competition. Hence, see the next step.
6- Rehearsal. "That's the easy part (referring to the delivery of a proposal). May we talk about the hard part? How will you tell your other rep that it's over?" That is, would the customer actual deliver the bad news to the competition should the proposal be acceptable. The book suggests being upfront about the difficulty of delivering a bad news to the competitors. The rehearsal is important because the competition will attempt to play defensive and match your offer. "Are you comfortable with everything? So it's done. Great. I'll go to work," Only now will you, in fact, draw up a proposal.

The book does deliver on the tangible aspect of its technique and believes in a regimented approach. However, this strength can easily also be a weakness for obvious reasons. Moreover, while discussing the book's negatives, the reader will notice a fair amount of postponement and stretching of material and pages before the book delves into the meat of the matter. Nonetheless, the build-up is not irrelevant. Each chapter offers a succinct summary as well and the book includes an index.

How to Get Your Competition Fired (Without Saying Anything Bad About Them): Using The Wedge to Increase Your Sales is different, interesting and possibly more concrete in its content than the average sales book.

It's more than what your grandmother told you..."if you can't say anything nice about anyone, then don't say anything at all..." Randy's book helped us focus on our business strengths during the sales process and how best to communicate those to a potential customer. We now include a "Proactive Timeline" in all of our proposal materials.