For product managers, in many cases, it is not that they do not know how to analyze, but that it is difficult to obtain competing product information. The author shared a method to obtain information about competing products—potential customers who pretend to be competing products and obtain information in a straightforward manner.
B-end products do not regard traffic as the king, but serve real customers and establish competition barriers, which results in a high threshold for product trial - direct registration is not possible, and pre-sales consultants need to be contacted, and many analyzes stop here.
We might as well be bold, follow this process, pretend to be potential customers of competing products, and obtain information in a legitimate way. This article is a method based on my more than ten successful experiences, and I would like to share it with you.
1. Preparation
1. User analysis - pre-sales consultant
Pre-sales consultants (including sales, marketing, and account managers in a broad sense) are the link between customers and enterprises. Many people do not understand this position and think that pre-sales is to meet customer needs and formulate plans, train customers and answer questions. .
In fact, pre-sales consultants also take on a more important role - screening high-value customers for the company. Factors such as the customer's strength background, estimated usage, purchase intention, and long-term cooperation determine the service attitude and service method of the pre-sales personnel. Therefore, if you want to get more information from them, you must first gain their trust, and if you want to gain their trust, you must first analyze them.
1) Feature attributes
- Professionalism: It is not only manifested in being familiar with its own products, but also analyzing the pros and cons of competing products (we can inquire about competing products information on the sidelines)
- Customer-centric: pre-sales staff will do their best to answer customer questions and meet customer needs (keep in mind that we are customers, and don't be submissive and guilty in communication)
- Recognition needs: pre-sales personnel hope that their dedication can be recognized by customers (in communication, they should praise each other from time to time to get closer to each other)
- Vigilant psychology: In order to prevent competitors from inquiring about intelligence, pre-sales personnel will be wary of unfamiliar customers or customers with abnormal words and deeds (don’t be too direct when communicating, and have a foreshadowing)
- Performance pressure: This is easy to understand (we can consult at the end of the month or quarter, when pre-sales staff tend to relax their vigilance due to performance pressure)
2) Basic attributes
- Region: The regional person in charge will be assigned according to the location of the customer to facilitate follow-up (avoid offline contact)
- Gender: more men than women (women are relatively sensitive and easy to find logical loopholes)
- Years of work: Generally, 85% of front-line pre-sales workers have worked for less than 5 years, and 37.7% have less than 2 years (the ability to distinguish "fake" customers is limited) Data source: 2021 IT pre-sales career status survey report - the most "Professional" and the most "complete" group of people
- Job content: writing proposals, bidding, demand research, product promotion, business trips (the long time of not replying to messages may not be because our purpose of obtaining information has been exposed, but because they are on business trips, meetings, visiting customers...)
- Working hours: normal working hours 09:00-18:00, actual working hours 07:00-23:00 (it is best to consult during working hours)
3) The user's day
PS: The data is organized in Zhihu, for entertainment only
2. Self-packaging - newcomers
After understanding our opponents, we have to think about what role to play to communicate with them in order to achieve the best results.
1) Position
Choose relevant positions according to the usage scenarios of competing products. For example, if you want to study school recruitment and examination software, you can play the role of HR; if you want to study the invoicing system, you can play the role of purchaser;
2) working years
It cannot be a very senior person. For example, it is impossible for the HR manager to study which recruitment software the company uses. This kind of thing is done by the recruiters below. They analyze the advantages and disadvantages, and then the HR manager makes a decision; It is impossible to be interns or newcomers, because these people have not even figured out the company's business, and cannot communicate effectively with pre-sales.
If you adopt the above two identities, it is likely to arouse the vigilance of the pre-sales personnel.
The best position is a newcomer who has been on the job for 1-2 years. This identity will have two halos:
- The other party has a good tolerance for us: if there are loopholes in the communication, it can be said that I mainly focused on other businesses before, and I am not very familiar with this business, or I admit that I made a mistake, which is relatively credible .
- No decision-making power: You can use the leader as a shield. For example, the background can be said that our company wants to change to another ERP software, and now there is a problem with XX, and the leader asked me to study other software; Have the opportunity to contact again.
3. Choose a company - moderate is better
Generally, B-end products serve enterprises. Before communicating with pre-sales personnel, we need to find a suitable enterprise to endorse our identity.
1) Main business
Select the main business enterprise based on the industry solutions of competing products. For example, when researching TMS software, you should choose a company with logistics and transportation, not a terminal sales company.
2) Business location
Since the pre-sales personnel will be allocated according to the location of the customer, if you are not worried that the purpose of the pre-sales personnel's visit will be "revealed", then you can find a local company, otherwise you should find a company far away from competing companies, branches, and offices to avoid Contact offline.
3) Enterprise scale
Large companies have big goals and many contacts, so they are not suitable for selection. Neither will a company with too few people, and its scale is not yet to the extent that it must use software to improve efficiency. Therefore, it is best to choose a company that is not well-known and has a moderate number of people as an endorsement.
PS: You can search for relevant companies on Qichacha, Baidu, BOSS Zhipin and other channels.
4) Use scale and frequency
Finally, consider the scale and frequency with which your business will use the product. For example, when researching recruitment software, the other party’s pre-sales personnel will definitely ask you about the number and frequency of the company’s usual recruitment, and recommend a suitable fee package to you accordingly. Here we still adopt the principle of moderation, the amount should not be too small, nor too much exaggeration, which is likely to arouse suspicion.
4. Resource preparation - prepare for a rainy day
1) Enterprise information
Keep in mind the name and address of the company, and have a general understanding of the organizational structure, number of employees, and development history, so as to avoid slips of the tongue during communication.
PS: Some competing products require the business license of the company when applying. In this case, we can only seek help from the leader to see if there are any cooperative customers willing to provide it.
2) Work mobile phone number and WeChat
The first time is preliminary communication by phone, followed by detailed and continuous communication through WeChat. In order to avoid unnecessary troubles, it is best to prepare a work mobile phone number, the best attribution is the location of the selected company, and open WeChat, and block Moments at the same time.
3) other
If it is necessary to ask pre-sales personnel to come to the "company" for a demonstration, it is necessary to arrange the scene of the selected company in advance to prevent disclosure.
5. Goal design - step by step
The communication process with pre-sales personnel can be roughly divided into four links: opening-bedding-depth-closing. The communication goal will change with the progress of communication. We can design the goals we want to achieve in each link according to the actual situation. For example as follows:
- Opening: Let the pre-sales staff feel that I am a real customer
- Foreshadowing: Obtain user manuals, PPTs, tutorials and other materials of competing products; be able to try competing products
- In-depth: XX problems encountered during use can be solved; can experience advanced functions or get introductions to advanced functions; understand how to charge; understand the differences with other competing products
- Closing: Declined and able to maintain the relationship
6. Speech design—Eighteen tricks of the routine
The most important thing in the whole preparation stage is the communication preparation. How to gain the trust of the pre-sales personnel? How to get a competing product experience account from the pre-sales staff? How to learn about the next step of competing products from the pre-sales staff? Wait, this all requires the design of communication skills in advance, and strive to create a seamless "trap". Here I have summarized eighteen ready-to-use routines based on practical experience.
Opening remarks:
1) Self-reported home
- Explanation: Take the initiative to introduce yourself at the beginning of communication, and quickly gain the trust of the other party.
- Speech template: I am XX in XX company. My surname is X. Our company is engaged in XXX business. I saw your company’s information on the Internet and would like to ask some questions about XX products.
Paving the background:
2) Bitter Meat
- Explanation: Imagine a real problem and seek help from pre-sales personnel.
- Speech template: Our sales department has always used the traditional method to maintain customer relationship. The work efficiency is relatively low, and the customer turnover rate is high. We are often scolded by the boss. Our leader wants to introduce a customer relationship management system to improve Human effect, so let me look into that.
3) Create something out of nothing
- Explanation: Pretend to use another competing product and use its shortcomings to find a better solution
- Speech template: We are using the product XX, which is expensive and often has problems, and the after-sales service is not good, which has a certain impact on our work. The leader is very dissatisfied and wants to find another product to replace .
4) Straight to the point
- Explanation: When further communicating with pre-sales personnel, you can directly state the requirements.
- Speech template: Can your product achieve XXX / Can you send me some product introductions / Can I experience the product.
5) Anti-customer-oriented
- Explanation: Don't feel guilty, we are Party A, and the pre-sales is to meet our needs, so we must show a confident and firm side when communicating, and be tough when necessary.
6) Tune the tiger away from the mountain
- Explanation: Telephone communication is more of a test of adaptability. If you feel that the communication is laborious or the purpose of the initial communication has been achieved, you can switch to WeChat communication, and you will have more time to think about speaking skills on WeChat.
- Speaking template: Sorry, I have a meeting in 20 minutes, so I have to prepare in advance. You can see how we communicate on WeChat. My mobile phone number is WeChat.
understand deeper:
7) Fake insanity
- Explanation: Researching the use of products is the product manager's strong point, but it should not be the user's strong point, so ask some basic questions appropriately, and at the same time avoid professional vocabulary and play a good role.
- Speech Template: Hello, how can I do it if I want XXX?
8) Throwing bricks to attract jade
- Explanation: If you want to understand the design reasons behind it, you can deliberately put forward your own superficial opinions to guide pre-sales corrections.
- Speech Template: Why do you design it like this, I think it's very strange, because...
9) Borrowing Arrows from Straw Boats
- Explanation: Some advanced functions in the experience account given to us before the sale may not be available, but we need to study it in particular. At this time, we can communicate with the pre-sales user whether he can give us permission, or borrow his account to let us experience the function. No, let him make a demo video.
- Speaking template: I found that the XX function needs to be upgraded to use the account. This function is really important to us, because XXX, can you help me find a way for me to use it.
10) Delay strategy
- Explanation: When encountering a question that is difficult to answer for a while, you can find an excuse to delay, and then answer the other party when you have figured out how to reply.
- Speech template: I don’t usually deal with this business, so I don’t know yet. I’ll ask our leader later and get back to you.
11) A hidden knife in a smile
- Explanation: More affirmations to pre-sales personnel will reduce the defense of the other party.
- Speaking template: Thank you very much for your help / You are very professional.
12) Follow the sheep
- Explanation: Pre-sales personnel will memorize the competitive advantages of their own products, and they can inquire about other competing products during communication.
- Narrative template: There are quite a lot of products in the market that do this. Can you tell me about your comparison with other products, so that I can report upwards.
13) Borrowing a knife to kill someone
- Explanation: Borrow someone else's words to question the pre-sales staff.
- Speaking template: I heard from the sales of competing products that your products are not stable. There have been several server crashes in the past. Have you solved this problem? How did you solve it? What is the current concurrency? what to do.
14) Play hard to get
- Explanation: Let the pre-sales staff feel that the order is about to be lost, and see how he answers the call.
- Speaking template: I have also contacted XX competing products, and I feel that your functions are similar, but the price they offer is more attractive.
15) Chain meter
- Explanation: Multiple routines are used together to achieve the goal step by step. Friendly ending:
16) Go for the best
- Explanation: Leave immediately after setting up, do not reply to messages, do not answer calls (not recommended, competitive product analysis is a continuous process, and this resource may be needed again someday)
17) Escape the golden cicada
- Explanation: It is possible to retreat completely without hurting each other's harmony.
- Speech template: Sorry, our leader decided to use another competing product XXX, because they XXX, you have worked hard during this period, we can continue to keep in touch later, in case their product is not satisfactory, I can recommend it to the leader again your products.
Fail all over again:
18. Borrowing a Corpse to Resurrect
- Explanation: It is inevitable that you will encounter a situation where the routine fails. It may be that the opponent is too smart or you are too nervous. It doesn’t matter. Learn from experience. After a while, change people, companies, identities, and call again.
2. Implementation
The next step is to practice according to the previous preparations. You need to pay attention to the following points:
- Whether you want information, an account number, or express other purposes, you must pave the way for the reason to convince the other party
- Don't spend too much time on phone communication, transfer to WeChat communication as soon as possible
- The rhythm of replying messages should be relaxed and moderate, and don't reply too timely
- Forget product thinking and communicate as a novice user
- confident confident more confident
- Record the communication process for easy review
Early use of the routine will benefit you, and it will become more and more difficult in the future!