Allow me to introduce a cool competitive concept in Coffee & Compete today.
It’s all about the slice of revenue you should have won but lost to a competitor instead.
We’re calling it the Competitive Revenue Gap.
And if you didn’t know it already, you’ll learn everything you need to know — and what to do about it — after reading this email.
You’ll also get a cup of competitive wisdom from Klue’s Competitive Enablement Manager.
And some hot compete job postings on the Competitive Enablement Jobs Board.
Allez,
The RAIN Group conducted a study to understand the average win rate of sales teams. That study found:
It’s this last bullet point that keeps sales execs up at night.
Some deals lost to the competition were probably unwinnable (product gaps, late to the deal, prospect had existing relationship with your competitor).
But at least half of those deals should have gone your way had your reps had been better enabled.
That gap between the revenue you should have won and what you actually did win is what we call the Competitive Revenue Gap (CRG).
At Compete Week 2022, Klue Co-Founder and CEO Jason Smith presented three actions you can take right now to start addressing it.
So let’s all help our execs sleep a little better at night and learn what you should be doing to close the CRG.
When in the realm of “could have/should have” it can be challenging to come up with numbers that stick.
And your execs are going to need something tangible — and credible — to latch onto for this revenue gap to be taken seriously.
That’s why we built the Competitive Revenue Gap Calculator.
This exercise is not about shocking your executives with some jaw-dropping number.
It’s about driving home the point that tipping just a small number of deals in your favour can have a huge impact.
Only when the Competitive Revenue Gap is credibly quantified can any organization truly start to close it.
Product Marketers and Compete Pros: it’s time for you to step up to the plate.
The fastest and most direct way you can start closing the Competitive Revenue Gap is through competitive enablement.
As Jason puts it:
“When we look at the reps that are using compete content, they win more deals, they discount less, and they close faster. At least one of the three — often all three.”
Those winnable deals that went to your competitor hinged on elements you can impact, if not outright control.
That’s why it’s your mission to:
The silver lining in acknowledging the Competitive Revenue Gap is seeing how big of an impact just a handful of lost deals can make.
The fastest way there is through better enablement of your reps.
Jason’s point about enabled reps closing more deals faster and for more money is not drawn from thin air.
It’s the reality for our customers who’ve diligently measured the performance of reps that use competitive content compared to those that don’t.
As we lay out in our 10 KPIs for your competitive enablement dashboard blog, content adoption and consumer usage underpin every other metric on the list.
The more closely you can tie content consumption to revenue generated, the stronger case you have for your program’s existence and expansion.
What’s more, measuring your own efforts in competitive deal support lends credence to how valuable compete can be in competitive deals.
When combined, the three points Jason presented in his keynote at Compete Week 2022 lay the foundation for you to start closing your Competitive Revenue Gap.
The first step is awareness and credibly calculating the gap.
The second is enabling your reps in order to tip the winnable deals to generate more revenue.
The third is measuring your compete efforts to demonstrate the positive impact they’re having on the gap.
There’s no magic wand to start narrowing the gap. It takes organizational buy-in, hard work and diligence.
But the better your reps are enabled, the more deals they’ll win and the more revenue they’ll generate.
Soon, your revenue gap will be less of a chasm and more of a crack in the sidewalk.
Thanks for reading this week’s edition of Coffee & Compete. As always, please reach out to me and the rest of the team with your thoughts and feedback. And If you know someone who isn’t already subscribed to Coffee & Compete, be a good friend and tell them about us. |