Underdog Selling
On October 3, 1964 a cartoon series debuted on NBC called Underdog, a show about a humble dog, who when trouble threatened, transformed into a superhero and save the damsel in distress. The well-known character actor, Wally Cox supplied the voices for both characters.
Why am I describing a television show that ran over 40 years ago? For this reason—many companies are competing in the marketplace today and living at the “corner of ignorance and bliss”. They don’t realize that they are ‘underdogs’ in their industry and need to be selling their products or services in a totally different manner.
If only they could leap tall buildings in a single bound and save the day by defeating the ‘villain’ (the competition) and save the damsel (the sale). But they can’t.
Why not? Because they’re not following a predictable, optimized, systematic sales process when they go to market. As a result, their sales pipelines are inaccurate, contain poorly qualified ‘hot deals’ and they’re not making their sales numbers. A well-designed sales process would take into account their underdog status and allow them to leverage it to make the sale.
How do you know if your company is the underdog?
If you are selling really expensive products or services, you might be an underdog.
If you’re not the market leader, you might be an underdog.
If you have higher priced products or services than the competition, you might be an underdog.
If you have a story to tell to the attention of your market, you might be an underdog.
If you have a new product or technology, you might be an underdog.
If you are a new company or brand, you might be an underdog.
If any of the above conditions are true for your selling organization, it’s time to put on your superhero cape and invest the time in fine tuning your team’s sales process. Where to start? My previous posts here, here and here would be great places to begin.
Good luck!
