Understanding your product or service’s key benefits is essential. But, the most effective salespeople (AI or Human) don’t just stop at knowing what makes their offering valuable; they rock at differentiating these key points against their competition.
But, humans often confuse accurate information with differentiated answers, something prospects or clients are increasingly frustrated with as their boss asks them to objectively find the best partner or technology to buy.
Consider a scenario where a company offers a cloud-based software solution (it doesn’t really matter what the product is but assume it’s SaaS). The key benefits—such as ease of use, scalability, and security—are likely shared by several competitors. Heck, they each probably have equally fancy logos to show you that someone loves them in the form of case studies.
But, the prospect’s reality is that most companies highlight the same, generic or abstracted points. With such similar messaging, how can a salesperson effectively convince a potential customer that their product is the best choice without expensive demonstrations or endless meetings?
The answer lies in real-time differentiation and knowing when and if, relative to competitive information, to try and schedule a meeting, getting them to subscribe to your content, or even asking for the sale.
It’s not JUST about knowing your product’s benefits but understanding how those benefits stack up against what competitors are CURRENTLY saying (and of course what’s discoverable via search, especially AI assisted search like Perplexity.AI)
While only directional, you might expect the numbers below as a reasonable guess for some example categories in terms of how much competition someone might face:
Quarterly pricing changes, features getting added or removed monthly, or new competitors emerging weekly, all make it difficult for even the most diligent salesperson to keep up and here is the opportunity for AI.
Let’s take a real-world example: imagine you’re selling a product in an industry with just a few direct competitors. You’ve spent weeks studying their offerings, crafting your pitch to highlight your product’s unique advantages. But in the time it takes you to get in front of your prospect, one competitor has launched a new feature, another has dropped their price, and a third has released a case study highlighting their recent success with a major client.
Your well-prepared pitch is no longer as compelling as it was a week ago. You are competing on what someone can discover NOW and not what has worked in the past, intuitive but hard to accept that a human can’t spend 24/7 searching out competition and still do their day job. And, if we are honest, competitive research is rarely a dedicated role and if everyone owns the responsibility then nobody owns the responsibility of real-time competitive insights.
Even with just a few competitors, the variables can shift quickly, making it nearly impossible for a human salesperson to keep track of every change and adjust their pitch accordingly.
Here we go AI: The salesperson who searches constantly and never forgets what worked
AI, with its ability to process and analyze vast amounts of information in real time, is the ultimate tool for sales leaders facing the challenge of constant competitive change. Imagine having an AI teammate that can, in real time, review the latest updates from all your competitors—whether it’s new features, pricing changes, or customer testimonials—and instantly adjust its sales pitch to emphasize how your product remains the superior choice (it can also help train and onboard human colleagues at scale to these insights in at least near-time.)
For instance, if a competitor suddenly drops their price, AI can help you pivot your pitch to focus on the superior value your product offers, even at a higher price point. If a new feature is released by another company, AI can quickly provide you with talking points on why your product’s feature set is still the better choice. This level of adaptability and real-time intelligence is something no human salesperson could achieve on their own.
In the competitive world of sales, knowing your product’s key benefits is no longer enough. The best salespeople differentiate themselves by understanding and responding to the competition in real time. AI offers the ultimate solution to this challenge by instantly analyzing and reacting to the latest competitive information and saying the right thing at the right moment.
As competitive landscapes continue to evolve at a wild pace, the role of AI in sales will only become more critical, given competitors are launching in niches and mass market opportunities at a faster than ever rate.
How many competitors do you have? Are you tracking 24/7 what’s happening? If not, maybe it’s time to hire your first AI salesperson and we would love to talk.
