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We are looking at various products. We had a call with one of the sales rep/product reps today.

Is it normal to let them know who else you are also considering?

And is it normal for the sales rep/product reps to disparage the other products?

Not sure what group this would belong in so just dropped in Water Cooler. Move if needed.

Thanks!

35 Spice ups
2

I have had that in the past, I just got to the point where I do not tell people anything when they ask those types of questions. I feel like each company I am looking at all have pro’s and con’s, it is up to me to decided which way I want to go.

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3

Yes, it it normal to say what else you are looking at, even if it isn’t true, or to say that you are looking at others but not mention their names.

It is also normal for a vendor to give “competitive analysis”, which may or may not be true. You always need to consider the source. Hopefully they don’t just trash talk a worthy competitor. That isn’t classy. Remember, a sales person could be representing a vendor and product today, and a competitor next month.

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4

I’m happy to tell them who else is being considered. They will usually send through a “us vs them” marketing spiel of some kind. I take these with a shovelfull of salt, but they can be useful to potentially spot any holes in the requirements document (when they say "we do this, they don’t) or prompt me to do some additional research sometimes. You have to be very cynical with them though as they’re often full of weasle words to make the others look bad.

What I never do, and am often asked is what the other providers pricing is so they “know what they have to beat”. My response to this is always “give me your best price first time, there won’t be a second bite at that cherry”

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5

I reveal as little as possible to sales reps - they’re usually phishing for names or numbers or getting familiarity with what you have to target accordingly. Unfortunately scammers use similar tactics too so no I don’t give cold calls information.

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6

Sometimes I give them a number they need to hit. It might be 20% lower than what a competitor is offering…

You would be amazed and what can happen at the end of a fiscal quarter or fiscal year.

Pro tip. Always ask when is their end of quarter and end of year. It’s useful information, and it signals that you are savvy and understand the system/game.

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7

I would let them know who else I was considering. The responses can be educational.

“And is it normal for the sales rep/product reps to disparage the other products?”

It depends on what definition of “disparage” is being used.

The following would cause me to lower my opinion of the speaker:

  • XYZ products are junk, you don’t want them
  • XYZ products are consumer level, you want enterprise equipment/software
  • XYZ products constantly breakdown

Whereas the following might be appreciated:

  • Ahh XYZ makes some decent products, you should look for some reviews focused on long term ownership to see if users stay happy.
  • Oh XYZ tier 1 products are excellent. Their tier 2 products don’t have the same reputation, be sure of the tier when comparing our products to theirs
  • Ugh, a lot of our installs are replacements of XYZ products. I can give you some phone numbers of clients who have switched and you ask them about comparisons.
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8

I’ve always let 'em know that multiple solutions were being considered and gotten granular if/when needed. If they trash other vendors, I view that as weakness rather than strength in their product offering(s).

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9

I’m not above giving them a number to hit, but I won’t tell them what a competitor quote is :slight_smile:

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10

I don’t tell. None of their concern. Plus, I feel it keeps them honest.

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11

I’ve developed the habit of giving as complete a picture of what I’m looking for, starting with any restrictions first.

For example: Had a nice conversation with a rep from KnowBe4 about their PhishER product, which looks really cool. @ssmith207 ​ gave me a look at his console, seemed like a good possible addition to our security and awareness, with leverage into training. First conversation, hey we’re doing CMMC, and the mail flow looks to run through your cloud servers first? The rep was knowledgeable about other security standards and was interested to hear about FedRAMP Moderate. No muss, no fuss, no wasting of anyone’s time - he grasped immediately this wouldn’t work for us, and done.

I’ve shopped for secure file sharing storage of late as well, and have had no issues explaining to other vendors which product I selected and why (in a specialized niche part of the space). The good reps say thanks, and the high turnover reps want to argue (exclusively the giant cloud based non-options, at this point).

It can be a good gauge of management quality to see how the organization trains for responses to lost deals.

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12

I challenged a salesman once about comparing their product to another, and I actually did name-drop. He’d never heard of the product I mentioned, and that was a red flag right away. Public K-12 is not gigantic industry. We’re comparatively very small and very niche versus biotech, automotive, manufacturing, construction, medicine, finance, etc.

The other problem we have with being so niche is that the field of competition is also very small. There are maybe a handful of vendors in each specific product space, which also makes competitive pricing almost non-existent, unfortunately. But as such, the vendor may not be competing with another vendor, but rather the simple word “no.”

If we don’t like your price or offerings, we’ll just continue to make do without it. No amount of “white papers” or “customer testimonials” is going to change the dollar amount we’re asking our admins to approve.

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13

I usually don’t mention competitor names, but am open to sharing that the process is competitive in hopes of keeping a fair quote in play.

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14

@ericcrawford ​ I would argue that it actually makes competitors and sales team more honest if you tell them who you are considering working with. Especially in regards to pricing. In many cases a sales team might actually give you better pricing if they know that you got an offer from one of their competitors for cheaper then theirs.

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15

As a former sales engineer, I’d say anything is possible with those kinds of calls. It all comes down to the company/sales team or culture. As far as telling them about other vendors you’re talking to/etc., that’s up to you and your team, probably. If you’re looking for a specific feature/functionality, sometimes you can’t help but let the competitors be known and good salesfolk should be transparent about any comparisons…ideally. If it’s just early chats about general things, no need to get into details if you don’t have to.

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I had a similar scenario. I told the rep what we were currently using and he said, ‘Well, I think that should work very well in your situation, I think you’re gonna be happy with them. If you want to do it a little differently in the future, please remember us.’

It did two things:

  1. Made me feel good about my current choice
  2. Made me feel like I could trust the rep and ensured the rep would be the first person called in the future
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17

One vendor handled it well. He asked who we were considering and said that he could put us in touch with customers that switched from those services to the one they offered. I liked that a bit better than just bad mouthing the competition.

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18

Thanks everyone! Definitely a mixed bag. :slight_smile:

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19

I NEVER let anyone know what we run. My standard answer to anyone who asks is “I cannot disclose that information”. You never know where that information will go and what it could be used for.

I do let them know that they could assume that we do use one of the market leaders in their space.

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20

I remember some sales people from a managed copy services provider try to give me their spiel. I told them who we were currently looking at and they just went to town about how bad the service is, blah blah blah. Seriously, over copiers.

Since then, I’ve learned not to give extra info unless it’s a) “But x company can do this” or b) “X product has the same features at less dollars”. The good sales folks will give a believable reason as to why they don’t have it or why they’re more expensive.

But honestly, the best vendors have demo/trial units/licenses at their disposal. I’d much rather have a 30-day run at something (if applicable) rather than a “demo” in their perfect environment.