How do you tell a customer that the other company is not right?

[northernsun]

I've just been to another survey and the customer has had a quote that was a) using the wrong figures for the SAP calcs (.95 instead of .8) and B) telling them that they have a special offer with a supplier so if they sign before such and such they get £500.00 off.
I see quite a few threads on here about daft claims, people pushing their own products and bigging them up etc..

My question is, as a none salesman, how do you go about telling the customer that this just aint on? Maybe with glaring thigs like the out and out bull its more cut and dried- you just tell them and show them the REAL docs. BUt its got me thinking. I always feel its unprofessional to slag off the opposition, often I have heard that a salesman had rubbished my choice of module because "theirs" is better- normally for a stupid reason like "ours is more efficient" and it often just leaves the customer confused. If I lose out on a job to a good installer that has either just got a better pice on a good product or put more effort in then I'm happy (ish!) but losing out to liars and cowboys is frustrating!
The last thing I want to do though, is play their game- depsite having reason too as in the cases above, and look just like one of them.

 

[MorganPVI]

Get the first appointment with a potenial client, not only can you set the panel choices up to your panels but also set the standard against which the other firms are measured against. You can't really slag off the competetion but you can sutblely impliy there are Salesmen and Surveyors and do the other firms visiting really understand the complexies of their project or they just selling.

To be frank, no matter what your sales technique, stunning technical knowlegde and friendly professional manner, more than half the time it comes down to price. IMO anyways!

 

[Matt_M]

You should be using SAP 2005

 

[SolarCity]

If I lose out on a job to a good installer that has either just got a better pice on a good product or put more effort in then I'm happy (ish!) but losing out to liars and cowboys is frustrating!

Agreed 100%. I can't stand salesmen nor bull****.

 

[SRE]

We seem to get more jobs that we've gone to last, after everyone else, than those we've been keen to get to and got there first. I used to think first was best but I just think if you can build a rapport with the customer that usually works best. Many, many of our customers have come back to us with information about what the competition are doing, what they liked, what they didn't like and helped us to hone our prices, panel choices and service. We're greatful for their advice and support but I think it's important to our customers that they help develop local solutions.

Forgot to say, the vast majority of our customers really dislike sales pitches and especially pressure!

 

[Ramjam]

Every time you hear of a breach of the REAL code send it in.

I address every one to [email protected] and I ask her what she's going to do about it. She's the watchdog for our industry and between us we certainly pay enough for her to sort it out.

That said, I've never had any reason to believe that she's done a damned thing!