In sales, as in life, there is no such thing as being “the only game in town.”
What I’ve found is that many business owners and startups tend to believe that their solution is totally unique or differentiated. The honest truth is that this hardly ever happens in practice. Even in the unusual cases in which the product or solution is truly new, it never takes long for someone else to copy it.
That being said, in some B2B sales situations, your product or solution may only have a handful of competitors, so although it’s difficult, you can still position yourself accordingly and have a good chance at developing a brand that is truly differentiated. But it's rare.
The flip side of the coin, one that is far more common, is selling a commoditized product or service. In these scenarios, you are up against a huge list of competitors offering the same or similar solutions. This is a common problem in a number of industries, for example when selling office supplies, selling general IT services, selling printing solutions, selling VoIP telecoms solutions….the list is long.
In one respect, it’s certainly comforting to know there is an established market for what you are selling. On the other hand, it is really tough (particularly as a small player) to carve out your niche. But this is exactly what you need to do to get started.
Here’s a few tips to help you find success if you are playing in a commoditized space:
1. Look For Partners (Channel or Reseller)
Can you find partners with an established client base that could utilize your services or solutions? If you can, it’s a win-win solution. The right arrangement can give your partner a potential leg up on their competition and provide you with a new source of potential revenue that can allow you to cost-effectively engage a large number of qualified prospects.
2. Focus on a Vertical
Building out your skill set in a niche or a vertical can be easier than trying to sell horizontally. As an example, we have a client that can provide IT services to a wide variety of clients, however, they have focussed and built a sizeable client base in the legal sector by making it considerably easier to position, sell and understand the nuances of that particular market.
3. Focus on Cost-Effective Methods of Driving New Leads
Depending on the value of your product or service, a direct sales effort may not make sense and you may need to look at ways of lowering your cost per sale. One way we are providing assistance to clients and seeing great success is developing and then executing proactive inbound lead generation efforts. The goal of a program like this is to create great content on a variety of platforms to improve your SEO and attract people to you.
4. Be Well-Funded and Give Yourself a Long Runway
Funding and the length of the sales cycle is always a challenge when launching a new product or service. Be sure to manage your cash burn carefully to give yourself enough time to grow a sustainable base of revenue. Be conservative and anticipate that it may take twice as long to hit your goals, particularly early on.
If you’re looking for assistance in developing and implementing a sales or marketing program, please don’t hesitate to contact us. For more great insights on selling a commoditized product or service, feel free to sign up for our newsletter or follow us on Twitter.
