One of the challenges facing sales teams at small and emerging companies is how to be included in the short list of vendors. They easily meet all the requirements in a bid or RFP, but the final short list always seems to be comprised of big brand vendors. Despite their ability to provide better functionality or service, the halo of big brand recognition is often too strong for small companies to overcome. How do you demonstrate you are an outstanding vendor, fully capable of performing when big brand competitors are armed with million dollar advertising bugets and $100,000 analyst reports? How can you quickly prove that your company stands above the competition? Simply put, how can you demonstrate that your company can and will do an outstanding job for the prospect? VendorRate allows small companies with great customer satisfaction scores to prove instantly why they are the best of breed, worthy of consideration on any short list of vendors. Using the VendorRate “Compare Vendors” function (included in VendorRate's $149 annual subscription service), subscribers can create a benchmarked comparison listing for all vendors considered during the initial bid submission. Then, with a single glance, prospects see top rated vendors regardless of size or brand name. Vendors on the comparison list can be ranked by overall score, or the information can be instantly sorted to display the top vendors by any of the 10 benchmarks including expertise, integrity, customer service, on time performance, budget, and overall effectiveness. Additionally, a subscriber can also drill down to view detailed rating information about each vendor including the job title and function of the rater, the size of the company, and scoring from repeat customers. Subscribers can even see whether or not the rater tends to give high or low evaluation scores (Our internal name for this is the “grouch” factor!) Up Next How vendors can speed sales cycles by reducing due diligence time About VendorRate VendorRate collects confidential customer evaluations about IT and telecom vendors that sell to business, government, and education. Ratings are entered via the web by IT professionals. Rating information is stored in a central database, and vendor scores are available free for public viewing at no cost via the web. Paid subscriptions ($149 annually) give users access to deeper levels of rating information including vendor comparisons, comments, rating details, and vendor drill downs. B2B technology companies create now create a HUGE bang for small bucks by leveraging the collective voice of their customer base. Visit http://www.VendorRate.com
A vendor comparison list or detail report should be included as part of every initial bid. After all, your customers are your best sales people. Use their collective voice to differentiate your company against all competitors.
February 28, 2009
February 20, 2009
How a small company can win over a big brand like SAP
There’s an old saying in technology purchasing circles, “Nobody ever got fired for buying IBM.” Why? The IBM brand name is well known to senior executives. If IBM does a bad job, how could we have known? But take a risk on an unknown company, and you shoulder the blame alone.
How can an emerging company, with better products or services, gain credibility in the marketplace when competing against the major brands? How does the small company effectively answer the first big questions every new prospect asks in their mind, “Who are these guys?”, and “Why we should risk our time and money on an unknown company?”
The answer is always the same. Credibility cannot be bought, it must be earned. It only comes from trusted sources such as industry media or existing customers. This post turns our attention to how to use the opinions of your customers to generate instant credibility.
Customer satisfaction scores - Your most reliable source of credibility
Using VendorRate, the collective voice of your existing customer base can now speak to future customers. In other words, you will be able prove to new prospects that your current customers are happy they selected you. There are 3 keys to being able to leverage outstanding customer satisfaction score.
1. Your business customers must really be glad they are doing business with you. (non negotiable)
2. Ask your customers to help their IT peers by rating your company at VendorRate.com. Freed of the fear that their identity will be revealed, customers tell the unvarnished truth. Prospects know that no vendor is perfect. Marketing spin about perfection creates suspicion in a prospects mind. When a prospect sees the full picture of your customer's opinions, they trust you. Authenticity wins, prospect win, and good vendors win.
3. Train your sales team on how best to use your VendorRate score. This means displaying your scores, bragging about the great things your company does, and being honest when you have areas that are in need of improvement.
We have covered 1 & 2 in prior posts. Let’s move directly to using your VendorRate scores effectively.
Brag about your great results whenever possible
Step 1 Capture a screenshot of your company’s Vendor scorecard and update your picture monthly. There are hundreds of commercial screen capture programs, or you can simply use the “print screen” function on your computer.
** Now comes the important part.
Step 2 Embed the screen shot at the end of every prospective customer email you send. Why do this? “Pictures are worth 1000 words.” Images transmit your message more powerfully than words. If you merely type in your score, a prospect can have doubts. If you show it, the point is driven home.
Additionally, you want your prospect to be able to forward your score to executives up the food chain when the decision making takes place. Busy executives don’t have time to read, but they skim bullet points and glance at pictures. A screen shot like this overcomes fear, uncertainty, and doubt very quickly. (click to enlarge)
Step 3 –Customized views create an even higher level of credibility
Now it’s time to blow the prospects doors wide open for you. VendorRate’s affordable subscription services ($149 per user annually) let you customize rating information to help prove you are the right fit for the prospect. Here are a few of the customized cross sections reports that can help tailor your rating information to demonstrate “customers like you love working with our company.”
- Rating scores by size of company. Show how big vs. small companies rate you.
- Ratings from different geographical regions
- Job titles and business roles of people providing ratings
- Product level comments including “what worked”
- How first time vs. repeat customers experience working with you
This screen shot shows how companies with >10,000 employees rate ChemSW (click to enlarge)
Or you can also let prospects review the exact comments your customers have entered into our independent rating system.
The voice of your customers can be a powerful and trusted voice that speaks to new prospects. Using VendorRate scores creates important first impressionst that neutralize the impact of big brand names for small businesses.
Next up- Beating your competitors using powerful differentiation tools
About VendorRate
VendorRate collects ratings about IT and telecom vendors that sell to business, government, education, and nonprofit organizations. Ratings are entered via the web by IT professionals. Rating information is stored in a central database, and vendor scores are available for anyone to view at no cost via the web. Vendors in similar industries can be compared and ranked as part of an affordable annual subscription service. Visit http://www.vendorRate.com
This shortened link will take you to ChemSW's scorecard on VendorRate. http://adjix.com/4dev If you are a paid subscriber ($149 annually), you can read the rating comments, view rating details, run a vendor comparison, and see firsthand how a small company can create a HUGE bang in their industry.
