LeapComp - Sales Performance Management Blog

Bashing competition is hardly a new “concept”; we see politicians lashing at each other, well known companies such as Google and Apple bashing Microsoft, but even some smaller sales performance management companies feeling compelled to slander their competition.

Two recent press releases illustrate what I mean by the unethical practice of defaming competition and spreading lies in the media:

Press Release 1

Synygy created the TrueReplacement offer in response to feedback provided by current and former customers of Callidus Software, namely that some customers have found:

• Project implementations can stretch to more than a year and come in significantly over budget.
• Implementations are typically riddled with custom code, which causes subsequent changes to be expensive and time consuming.
• Unmet promises have led to undesired outcomes.
• Ongoing IT and other costs associated are higher than expected.
• Business users are unable to make changes to data, plans, and reports-exacerbating the problems of inflexibility and excessive costs.

Press Release 2

… Synygy has found that not all such companies are as independent and unbiased as they claim. Instead, Synygy has encountered situations where such companies have alliances with the very vendors about whom they are supposedly providing unbiased advice, are providing implementation and other services to the vendor or the vendor’s customers after helping a vendor win business, and are providing inaccurate and misleading information about the vendors with whom they do not have such arrangements.
Companies providing or that have provided SCM vendor evaluation services include:

• OpenSymmetry (which has performed vendor evaluations and follow-on implementations of Callidus Software, and has alliances with other vendors)
• Arcadia Solutions (which has done vendor evaluations followed by implementations of Callidus and other systems)
• Compensation Technologies (which formed alliances with Callidus, Oracle, and others, and is now owned by Callidus, but which still has management in common with The Alexander Group)
• Business users are unable to make changes to data, plans, and reports-exacerbating the problems of inflexibility and excessive costs
• Ongoing IT and other costs associated are higher than expected.
• Iconixx (formerly an alliance partner with Callidus, Oracle, and others, and now is owned by nGenera)

As an example of the questionable practices of these companies, OpenSymmetry repeatedly uses the words “independent” and “unbiased” on its website and yet in a press release yesterday stated: “OpenSymmetry will deploy and implement Callidus On-Demand and on-premise solutions.”

In both examples, the attempt is obviously to capture current or potential clients from the competition, by attempting to make them believe in lies and distorted facts.

I searched the web for material supporting my view that this is not the best strategy, and found a recent article reflecting what I was thinking:

Most companies out there are trying to solve problems for customers.  They may be doing it in a different way from you - but most honestly believe in their method and how it will help those customers.  Recognizing your customer’s strengths is key to making your own pitch something that resonates well with your customer.  You need to recognize that your customer often has a difficult choice about what product to select - perhaps putting their own job on the line for it.  So, if you can help them with a convincing argument why your product serves them better AND build the argument why the other product doesn’t fit - even though it TOO is a great product - then you are more likely to get the sale.

For example, in a simplistic approach if I were selling you apples and someone else were trying to sell you oranges, I could bash my competition and tell you that my apples are sweet and his oranges are citris, and that citris sucks and causes acid in your stomach.  Or the better pitch might be to say, “While oranges are indeed a great fruit and have amazing benefits like Vitamin C, I know that someone who is as on-the-go like you will appreciate the tremendous benefit that a fruit like an apple can bring such as portability (no need to peel it), cleanliness (no juice running down your arm), and the perfect balance of sweet and nutrition.”   Your prospect knows that you have pluses and minuses, and that your competition has pluses and minuses and when you point out the pluses in your competition, it adds significant credibility to your entire pitch.  Your prospect is going to go through this exercise of weighing the pluses and minuses after you leave - so you are helping him/her by going through it with him/her and planting just what you want them to think about you vs them is a perfect tactic to bring your product to the top.

Bad-mouthing competition never works, and if a vendor truly has a superior product, let the product speak for itself and make an argument for the product’s superiority rather than for the inferiority of the competition.  This is a concept I would have at least expected companies focusing on incentives and rewards to understand!

Almost everyone faced a situation where some people try to make others look bad to make themselves look better, or where a bully needs to harass people to feel better.  Fortunately, this behavior rarely pays off.

The question organizations really need to ask themselves is, do you really want to do business with a vendor with a lack of professionalism and business ethics, who will lower themselves by “playing dirty”?  Can you really trust such a vendor, and depend on them to deliver a mission-critical solution?

Come on SPM Vendors…  Grow up!