ffirs.qxd 11/30/04 10:03 PM Page i How toGet Your Competition Fired (without Saying Anything Bad about Them) ffirs.qxd 11/30/04 10:03 PM Page ii ffirs.qxd 11/30/04 10:03 PM Page iii How toGet Your Competition Fired (without Saying Anything Bad about Them) Using The Wedge® to Increase Your Sales Randy Schwantz John Wiley & Sons,Inc. ffirs.qxd 11/30/04 10:03 PM Page iv Copyright © 2005 by Randy Schwantz. All rights reserved. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey. Published simultaneously in Canada. The Wedge®, The Wedge®logo, and Selling Is a Contact Sport®are registered trademarks of Schwantz and Associates, Inc. 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HF5438.25.S3392 2005 658.85—dc22 2004017334 Printed in the United States of America. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 ffirs.qxd 11/30/04 10:03 PM Page v To Lori, one of the world’s greatest jugglers, a champion of kids, horses, and basketball, my pillar, the apple of my eye, my one and only. I also want to dedicate this book to you, the salesperson. The work you do in keeping the wheels of commerce turning is indispensable. My fondest wish is that this book will help you achieve your own goals sooner and provide excellent, proactive service to more clients. ffirs.qxd 11/30/04 10:03 PM Page vi ftoc.qxd 11/30/04 10:03 PM Page vii Contents Preface ix Introduction The #1 Obstacle to Most New Business 1 PARTI The Strategy to Win 17 1 The Wedge 19 2 Finding Your Winning Difference 41 PARTII The Tactics That Work 65 3 The Wedge Sales Call 67 4 Discovering the Pain—The Problem Phase 79 5 Proposing a Remedy—The Solution Phase 107 6 Getting Your Competition Fired— The Commitment Phase 121 PARTIII Changing the Way Selling Is Done 133 7 Individual Success 135 8 The Wedge Sales Culture 147 vii ftoc.qxd 11/30/04 10:03 PM Page viii CONTENTS 9 For Buyers Only 183 10 For Current Providers Only 189 11 The Wedge Flight Plan: A Quick Review 193 References 201 Index 203 About the Author 209 viii fpref.qxd 11/30/04 10:04 PM Page ix Preface Ihave more than 200 books on my bookshelf about selling. They all say pretty much the same thing, that selling in- volves two people—the seller and the buyer. They say if the seller can build a relationship with the buyer, find out what the buyer needs, then bring in what the buyer needs, the seller will be rewarded. The reality is that there are three people in the selling interview—the buyer, the seller, and the unseen current provider. Not only do you have to be great at building rela- tionships, you’d better be great at busting the incumbent relationship. The biggest challenge with traditional selling meth- ods is that they don’t have a strategy for dealing with the third party, the incumbent. Unless you have a strategy for driving a wedge between the buyer and the current provider in order to get your competition fired, the chance is very good that the incumbent will leverage the existing relationship with the client (your prospect) to get a “last look” and match your proposal. You’ve just been rolled. So the question is, how do you Get Your Competition Firedwithout saying anything bad about them? Read on. . . . ix