by Tim Hughes | @Timothy_Hughes | LinkedIn
“We are the biggest”, “we are market leader”, “we are something or other in the Gartner magic square” are claims that people make all the time. And, do you know what, I and nobody else cares.
In our lives we have all seen companies make claims and counter claims about their products and companies. You may remember an advertisement in newspapers that went something like “use the Charles Atlas bull worker and get a six pack” or in comics at school there were advertising for “X-Ray specs”. I’m sure enough people sent away the money, otherwise these companies wouldn’t have kept advertising, week after week. Of course, most of us know, these “miracle cures” don’t actually work. Most of us (maybe I should say) all of us just laugh at these claims as rubbish.
There is no way using that bull worker that you will get a six pack. Maybe, changing your diet, losing some weight and getting in the gym would help. (Tell me about it). There is no way that a pair of glasses will be X-ray without being highly radioactive at the same time.
Some other claims I’ve seen on LinkedIn, which I add here as I find them ironic and funny:-
- The world’s best negotiator was selling his book for 99 cents
- A book on “value selling” being sold for 99 cents
- A US only based social agency claiming to be the biggest in the world
- A Sales Guru claiming to be the best in the wold, but they have no sales experience on their Linkedin profile
- The person who claims to make you a LinkedIn Influencer but just by looking at their LinkedIn profile it’s clear they are not a LinkedIn Influencer.
So what happens in real life is that us consumers just see claims like “We are the biggest”, “we are market leader”, as noise.
But the internet, social media and mobile has changed everything.
In the past if somebody claimed they had x-ray-specs you had nowhere to go to check that out if they were any good. Now we do. Whenever we go to buy something we check it out on the internet or social media.
If Amazon sold x-ray-specs, you would read the reviews, if you are going to book a hotel you will check them out on trip advisor. If you find somebody offering to make you a LinkedIn Influencer you will check out their Linkedin profile. If they are not a LinkedIn Influencer themselves you wouldn’t buy from them. How if they are not a LinkedIn Influencer will they ever be able to teach you to be a LinkedIn influencer. There is no hiding place on social!
So how does this work in B2B Enterprise sales? I’ve been lucky to work for some “household” names and it’s could be suggested that “nobody gets fired if you buy” certain companies. But really?
I’ve also worked for small companies where we just out sold and out manoeuvred our larger competition. There are common “buttons you can press” where the larger competition just implode. As to “nobody gets fired if you buy” situations if I look back on my career, I would never use this excuse for a lost sale. I lost because I didn’t qualify hard enough or didn’t have the courage to walk away early enough. We all live and learn.
Any company that is serious about buying any product or service will as part of their due diligence will look at all the options as part of their on-line research. Wobetide any company that lies. And if people don’t do their due diligence they were never going to buy from you anyway.
So when somebody claims they are the biggest, nobody cares, it’s just noise and they have probably just run out of good ideas. Maybe it’s time for a change in their Sales and Marketing Leadership.
People who read this article also read these:
https://dlaignite.com/what-can-golf-teach-us-social-selling/
https://dlaignite.com/what-next-after-your-sales-transformation/
https://dlaignite.com/you-mustnt-be-that-busy-at-work/
