But whether that subject is introduced implicitly or explicitly can make all the difference.
Implicit comparisons happen when the buyer takes their own initiative to research the market.
Explicit comparisons happen when the seller specifically compares their offering to that of their competitors.
A Stanford study looked at this on eBay. They put a popular CD up for auction and “framed” it between two identical CDs at different prices coming from different sellers, so people who came across the CD would also come across those two “competitors”. When buyers were left to their own devices, the prices of the competitor CDs influenced the bid on the test CD, even pushing the price up (the perceived value) at times.
However, when buyers were directly told to make comparisons, they found that this relationship no longer mattered. Buyers became much more risk-averse and cautious in their purchases.
This resulted in a decrease in buyer confidence in multiple ways:
Comparative selling can be very powerful. It can directly influence the value seen in your product. But it has to be approached tactfully. You should lay out the full value of your offering (not just pricing), allow the buyer to do their own research on competitors, and be open to answering any questions they may have.
Allow the buyer to steer this conversation and you’ll offset the confidence risk. Taking a less direct approach to sales is good advice in general when dealing with the modern buyer.
While only 17 percent of salespeople would describe themselves as “pushy”, 50 percent of prospects think otherwise.
