Getting Business From a Client Who is Already Using a Competitor
Follow @LarryBodine 
Darryl Cross, VP of Vice Client Profitability for LexisNexis, has an excellent post on his Rainmaker Fitness Blog called "Fire them. Hire me."
He adroitly mixes fitness with rainmaking in a scenario that fits most "pitches/beauty contests/dog and pony shows/etc." Here's a snippet:
You must differentiate yourself to a point where they don’t want to just hire you. They want to fire their current provider (in a nice way, I am sure). When trying to unseat or take a share away from the incumbent, you have a few choices:
- Say we are great and wait for the incumbent to fumble one day
- Do the same work and charge discount prices (at little profit) to buy their business
- Offer a new approach or new services that makes them think they are doing something NEW
Ideas? OK, here are a few:
- Cross sell in advance. Don’t sell mergers & acquisition services without employment, real estate and IP protection bundled in. When these issues are ignored in favor of “doing the deal,” mergers always seem to disappoint.
- Follow the client. Is the client going somewhere new? Expanding in China? New Jersey? Go there for the first time with them. By the way, you need to know this BEFORE their current firm does, so do your research and go ask them questions. Often.
- Alternative Fee Arrangements. What would happen if you walked in and proposed a flat fee for all their services? You would need to investigate and control your costs, but so does every business. Can you offer transparency and predictability in addition to your services?
It may very noble to perform the charge down the “we are great and will charge less” hill like a scene out of Braveheart and take the enemy head on. It is just not very smart.
Figure out a new approach that makes it easier for them to have that difficult conversation with their present provider instead of you.
OK. Now give me 30 push-ups and 10 pull-ups.
