Sales helps from Eminem

Hey, Scott from The Sales Mastermind here. Today’s edition only takes 6 minutes.

Competitive deals can suck.

And there is always competition. Sometimes direct - like-for-like. Sometimes indirect - where budget/time/effort/energy could go to you or someone else.

Learning to win competitive deals is like hooking your business up to a rocket ship.

8-miling

A technique to win competitive deals is “8-miling”. Named for the final rap battle between B-Rabbit and Papa Doc in the movie 8-Mile.

Watch the rap battle here.

In this example the seller is B-Rabbit, the audience is the buyer and Papa Doc is the competitor.

B-Rabbit opens with a psychological phenomenon known as “in-group–out-group bias”:

Now, everybody from the 313
Put your ** hands up and follow me!
Everybody from the 313
Put your ** hands up!

The in-group are people like you, people you belong with, people you like. People who put their hands up.

The out-group are people different to you. Anyone who did not raise their hands.

By Papa Doc and his group NOT raising their hands they are now the out-group.

B-Rabbit highlights the out-group status.

Now, while he stands tough
Notice that this man did not have his hands up

Then B-Rabbit points out all his own flaws and weaknesses, those he expects Papa Doc to use.

This is a clever way to disarm your competition. If your competitor brings up something you have already disarmed they look foolish. If they don’t bring it up they might have nothing to say.

It also builds trust. Most buyers expect sellers to focus on their positives and brush over their weaknesses.

I know everything he’s ‘bout to say against me
I am white, I am a ** bum
I do live in a trailer with my mom
My boy Future is an Uncle Tom
I do got a dumb friend named Cheddar Bob
Who shoots himself in his leg with his own gun
I did get jumped by all six of you chumps
And Wink did ** my girl

Now B-Rabbit has built trust he attacks the competitive advantages he has over Papa Doc.

These have to be real, and they have to be advantages that matter to the buyer. Anything not relevant will confuse the buyer.

Confused buyers usually pause instead of purchase.

B-Rabbit then tells the crowd about Papa Doc’s private school and happy childhood.

These are things the buyer would not want to hear and strengthen the out-group bias.

You went to Cranbrook, that’s a private school
What’s the matter, dawg? You embarrassed?
This guy’s a gangster? His real name’s Clarence
And Clarence lives at home with both parents
And Clarence’ parents have a real good marriage

The final line is one of the most powerful.

The crowd expects Papa Doc to have something new to share.

Here, tell these people something they don’t know about me

As you’ll see in the clip Papa Doc is shocked, and has nothing to add, he freezes.

When 8-miling goes wrong

• If you competitor gets in first, you are now the out-group
• If there is no known competitor
• If your buyer doesn’t trust you
• If you try to make your differentiator price
• If you truly don’t have a differentiator

Talk track

Let’s assume you are selling Hubspot’s CRM to a mid-sized company in Ireland. The main competitor was Salesforce.

You might do something like the following:

Yes, we come across Salesforce a bit these days.

(Acknowledge you know about the competitor.)

Not normally for a mid sized company. They typically work with the largest of the large enterprises. Fortune 100 and bigger.

(Start the in-group-out-group bias)

From what people tell me, they have an incredible product for American companies. It just takes 2 extra hires to admin the software.

(No business ever wants to add headcount)

People sometimes choose them over Hubspot if they are looking for a full IT overhaul. They want everything from accounting to payroll to HR etc in one place. Rather than focusing on the CRM.

(Focus on a strength of theirs that is not relevant to your buyer)

For example, when we helped NAME over at COMPANY to set up Hubspot she loved that we have a large office in Ireland. She also loved that we were able to reduce her no shows from 60% to 25% with automated reminders.

(Reinforce in-group bias with a case study. Focus on examples similar to the business you’re talking. The benefit should be something that aligns with what the buyer wants)

I assume none of this is relevant to you, or should we dive deeper on something I have said?

(Buyers love correcting wrong assumptions. They will be eager to tell you what they liked and where you need to focus to win this deal)

For another example of 8-miling.

Alex Kremer recently posted how his team beat a competitor.

TLDR Wrap Up

• There is always competition
• Know your product, it’s differentiators and your competitors product and differentiators
• Lay the foundations for your competitor to chase
• Be ok sharing certain weaknesses
• Create an in-group that includes both you and your buyer/s
• Label an out-group for your competitor

And that’s a wrap…. Let me know what you think! it to a friend

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PS I help founders who sell, but aren't "sales"people. Typically this is two groups:

Early stage businesses when the founder has made a few sales, but are before having product-market-fit. Together we'll speed up the learning, make you more money, faster and hire a performing sales team. - Is this you? Reply "Early"

Or established agencies that have recently lost a major client and realised they need to learn how to sell to keep their current team employed (let alone grow the agency). - Is this you? Reply "Agency"