Win 'Em Over All's fair in love and war. Go ahead, woo your rivals' clients.

Looking for new customers? It pays to consider who's alreadyusing your competitors' services or products. If you'rewondering why those customers should do business with you, well,that's exactly the question you'll have to answer if youexpect them to make a vendor change. So before you attempt to woo acustomer away from a competitor, you must ask yourself thesequestions: What can I offer that's different from mycompetitor? How can I bring more to my customer's business? Howcan my product or service add more value to the potentialcustomer's business?

Once you've answered all these questions, there's onething left to ponder: What is the competition doing that you can dobetter, and what isn't the competition doing that you can offerthe customer? Suppose your prospective customer has been buyingfrom Acme Widgets for a long time. It's likely Acme is takingthat business for granted or even becoming complacent about theservice they provide. That's a perfect opportunity for you tooffer your new prospect a "teaser," such as a week-longfree trial (or 30 days, or a discounted price, or whatever makessense for your business) so he or she can see that the kind ofvalue you offer makes your company much better than thecompetition. Then you can say, "If we don't proveourselves, stay with your present vendor. I promise you, once youtry our product, you'll understand why changing suppliers isgood for your business."

Approaches That Work