#random
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Random question - thoughts on setting up reference calls between competitors? This keeps happening to me: Sales: "Do we have any references at Company XYZ" Me: "Yes, we do!" Sales: "Great we have a competitor of theirs looking for a reference" Me: :melting_face: I don't feel like that's the greatest ask of our existing customer, and in many cases we have lots of other references that will probably be a great fit...but I'm wondering others thoughts?
Time to role out the, "let's think about this from the customer's perspective" speech.
thank you...I really needed a sanity check since this started coming up all of a sudden
I agree with Laurie, I would never ask a customer to give their competitor help in a purchasing decision. It puts the customer in a very precarious position - which loyalty will pan out…
In general, I'd say: No way. No company wants to help out their competitor.
BUT what I could see working here is if the buyer says, "We're really trying to beat out X competitor," and they're a customer, just dropping that. Like, oh, they use our product to solve your same problem.
I've used that as a strategy for marketing investments to leaders who index on competition (so-and-so will also have a booth, is also on this podcast, is also sponsoring...)