Latest / Closing the Deal with Fexingo: Sales, Negotiation, and Revenue Conversations for Operators / The Sales Rep Who Won by Asking the Buyer to Talk to Their Competitor
Transcript
- Lucas: A sales rep in the middle of a six-month deal cycle for a hundred-and-fifty-thousand-dollar annual contract — marketing analytics platform — looks the buyer in the eye and says, 'Before you make a decision, call my competitor. Ask their customer success team how often companies your size churn.' Luna: He sent the buyer to a competitor? That sounds insane. Lucas: That's the move. And it won the deal. The buyer called, got the churn number — thirty-five percent among companies in their revenue band — and signed with the rep the next week. Luna: Okay, that's brilliant. But also terrifying. What if the competitor had said, 'Our churn is three percent'? Lucas: Then the rep loses. But here's the thing — he knew his competitor's weakness. He'd done his homework. The competitor was great at landing logos, not retaining them. That thirty-five percent churn was a known data point inside the industry. Luna: So it's not a blind gamble. It's a calculated reveal. Lucas: Exactly. Let's unpack the psychology. First, by sending the buyer to the competitor, the rep signals extreme confidence. He's essentially saying, 'I'm so sure you'll choose us that I'll let you hear the downside of the other option directly.' Luna: It flips the buyer's risk calculus. Instead of worrying about what they're missing by not choosing the competitor, they start worrying about what they'll lose by choosing it. Lucas: Right. The buyer was stuck in analysis paralysis — two good options, feature parity. The rep gave them a new dimension to compare: post-sale experience. And he let the competitor's own customers make his case. Luna: I love that. It's not a negative sell from the rep. It's third-party validation. Lucas: Let me give you more detail on the setup. The rep — let's call him Mark — sold for a mid-size analytics company. The buyer was a director of marketing at a health-tech firm. They'd done demos, reference calls, pricing. It was down to Mark's company and a bigger incumbent with a famous brand. Luna: The classic David versus Goliath scenario. Lucas: Exactly. Mark knew his product was better for mid-market health-tech. But the brand power was tough to beat. So he looked at the competitor's public churn data, talked to a couple of their former customers, and found the pattern: companies with fewer than five hundred employees churned at over thirty percent within the first year. Luna: Because the competitor's platform was built for enterprise. They didn't have the support structure for smaller teams. Lucas: Right. So Mark's move was essentially: give the buyer a reason to disqualify the competitor. But doing it indirectly, by letting the competitor speak for itself. Luna: That's really smart. But I want to talk about when this could backfire. If the competitor had better retention, Mark would have handed them a deal. Lucas: Absolutely. You only make this move if you're certain of your competitor's weakness. And it has to be a weakness that matters to this specific buyer. For Mark, churn was critical because the buyer's team didn't have the bandwidth to manage a platform migration every year. Luna: So the buyer's pain point aligned with the competitor's gap. Lucas: Bingo. The second risk: the buyer might feel manipulated. But if you're genuine — 'I honestly think you'll make a better decision with full information' — it comes across as helpful, not tricky. Luna: There's also the risk that the competitor figures out what's happening and offers a counter-move. 'Hey, we'll match the price, give you a dedicated support manager.' Lucas: That's possible, but unlikely in a short time frame. The buyer is calling customer success, not sales. Customer success isn't trained to close. They'll give honest numbers. Luna: Fair. So the rep is essentially outsourcing the competitive intelligence gathering to the buyer, but in a way that favors him. Lucas: Exactly. And it works best when the competitor has a structural disadvantage, not just a bad month. Churn is structural. So is implementation time, or support response. If it's systemic, it won't change overnight. Luna: Let me ask this: what if the buyer is too lazy to make the call? Or says 'I trust you, just give me the deal.' Lucas: That happens. And if the buyer refuses, you've still signaled confidence. You can then say, 'Okay, let me share one data point that I think is relevant.' And you bring up the churn number yourself. But the impact is weaker. Luna: So the magic is in the buyer doing the work. They own the discovery. Lucas: Right. Own the discovery, own the decision. Let me give you another example. A rep selling cybersecurity software to a regional bank. The competitor was a giant with a history of slow incident response. The rep said, 'Call three of your peers who use them and ask about time to respond.' Luna: Did it work? Lucas: Yes. The buyer found that average response was forty-eight hours. The rep's company guaranteed four. Deal closed. Luna: That's a beautiful wedge. But I imagine this only works if the competitive differentiator is objective and verifiable. Not 'our software is more intuitive.' That's subjective. Lucas: Right. Has to be measurable. Churn rate, response time, uptime, implementation duration. Something with a number. Luna: So the takeaway for sales reps: know your competitor's weak points cold. And if you have a genuine advantage, don't be afraid to let the buyer discover it directly. Lucas: Exactly. And one more thing: the rep in our story didn't just say 'call them.' He gave a specific question: 'Ask about churn for companies your size.' That made it easy for the buyer. Luna: Specificity builds trust. It shows you're not hiding anything. Lucas: Alright — I want to wrap with a thought. This move only works if you're genuinely confident. If you're bluffing, you'll get exposed. But if you've done the homework, it's one of the highest-integrity ways to win. Luna: Integrity and strategy — that's a rare combo. I love it. Lucas: Yeah. And you know, if this conversation moved your thinking forward in some small way — maybe it's worth the price of a coffee. The show stays ad-free because of listeners like you. If today was worth it, you can find us at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. No pressure, just a link if it feels right. Luna: Absolutely. We love doing this, and knowing it lands with folks makes it all worthwhile. Lucas: All right — next episode, we're going to talk about the rep who won by asking the buyer to fire their own team member. That one's got a twist. Luna: I can't wait. See you next time.