Ethical Theft: How to Steal Business from Your Competition

CCRA Check-inGuest columnist, Bill Todd, interviews the founder of Signature Worldwide, Don Farrell, on tips about stealing market share from his new book on the subject.

Farrell is a travel industry entrepreneur who has made millions for his clients. His passion has brought him to this place as the Founder and Chief Cultivator for Fresh Revenues. He was also the Founder and Chairman of the largest and most respected travel and hospitality training company in the world, Signature Training.

The good news is that CCRA has arranged for you to get a sneak preview of Don Farrell’s new book and get a jumpstart on your local competition. Just as the publisher went to press, I sat down with Don and got the inside scoop on how you can outsmart and outsell your competitors by taking direct aim on their most profitable accounts.

Q. One of the most effective tactics for generating new sales during a recession is to take direct aim on your competitors’ accounts. Our research states that, on a given day, 17% of your direct competitors’ accounts are ready to switch suppliers and you do not have to offer a discount or enhancement to win their business. You just have to ask them! Amazingly, most travel companies do not actively pursue this lucrative source for new sales. That’s why I’m thrilled you wrote this book. How did you come up with the name “Ethical Theft”?

A. When I first started writing this book, I quickly realized that from one person to the next, there was a real variance between the definitions of what is right and ethical when it comes to stealing business. I even had one of my clients tell me he had never done an unethical thing in his life. It took all of 30 seconds to prove him wrong. So the question of how far people were willing to go to become successful in business, provide for their families, and keep their jobs became the foundation of this book. And in the book, I give my personal definition that I promise will not sit well with all readers.

I think there are three impressions that this book will make:

Q. Can anyone who reads this book do the things you did to steal business?

A. Being able to steal business starts with being able to make a great sales call — one in which you gather information on the competition’s clients/customers. One step without the other will not work.

In the book, I start with how to make a sensational “transaction” sales call and then talk about how to make “relationship” selling calls. The formulas are very different from one another. Usually on the transaction call, you are receiving phone calls, e-mails, in-person inquiries (walk-ins) or letters asking about your product and service. There are usually time constraints on providing this kind of call because new incoming calls are waiting, customers are waiting and so on. With relationship selling, you are going to make calls or handle face-to-face selling situations that have greater revenue potential.

After one knows how to make the calls, they can then use what is shared in the book as the ways and means to acquire information on who your competition is serving. Now that’s how to save time, energy, money and resources when uncovering new business.

Q. You make the claim that if the world was better at stealing business from one another that service levels would get drastically better. Can you explain?     

A. I have spoken at more than 800 events or training sessions, and asked over 50,000 people if service levels in North America are getting better or worse? An overwhelming majority agreed that we are getting worse — from shoe repair shops, to the cable company, to fast food to retail. I can count on two hands how many people said it was getting better, but they couldn’t offer any reasons or examples to support their belief.

If you knew that your competition was very good at stealing your business and your employees, how much harder would you work to make them all more loyal? When another business took a great account from me or one of my better employees, I didn’t place blame with them. I placed blame where it belonged — with me, for letting that business succeed. That’s why at my company we had less than 2.5% turnover and we ran a 100-seat inbound and outbound contact center as part of our business. We knew contact centers that had 100% turnover and are delighted. This is just not a North American problem. The international folks I talk to share our concerns and problems in this area as well.

Q. So in order to hang onto customers and employees from people who, like you, are out hunting for them, what can one do?  

A. Make them loyal. Work harder, smarter and become more personal when getting to know what it takes to make employees and customers happy. Starting with the top dog, every single person at every organization needs to drive a sales and service culture that is second to none. We talk about how to do this in my book, but at the heart of it all is caring more about and doing more for your people. That doesn’t mean employees or customers get whatever they want, whenever they want it. It means that employees are authoring plans with you. They are shown how to execute at a higher level; their training is reinforced to ensure success; they are held accountable; they have resources to fix things; and they are compensated commensurate with their worth. Have fun with them; care about them and the things that are important to them; and be real. Loyalty is the end game here — not satisfaction. Loyalty will get you the profit you seek. As good as I think I was and am at stealing business, I can’t steal loyal people from a competitor. Fortunately/unfortunately, most customers and employees are not totally loyal.

Q . Give us a taste of one thing you did to steal business from your competition: 

A. I would call up the accounting department at a major competitor and tell whoever answered the call that I was the CFO for a major corporate client and that my company was getting ready to build a new training facility in the area. I explained that didn’t trust salespeople (including my own) to be thoroughly honest with me and that I needed to talk with someone a lot like me — that being the accounting person. 

Timeout: Now this person has never ever received a phone call like this; and chances are pretty damn good that he doesn’t like or trust sales people of any kind, so he shares my disdain. At this point, he has a pretty darn good reason to listen as intently as he ever has on any phone call he has ever received.

Time-in: I would go on to say, “We guestimate that we are bringing about $500,000 worth of business to your area. Nobody knows for sure because we are still finalizing plans. The reason for my call is this: I would like to get a list of references from you that I will call in order to make sure you are the kind of business with which we would like to do business.” 

I would ask for six references, and more times than not, this accounting person would do all it took to give me 10-15 references. Heck, they would even give me payment histories without me asking for that information. I would, of course, start setting up appointments to see those accounts right away — make a great sales call; care more and do more; and earn this new business for me or my client.

Unethical? Smart? Immoral? Remember, if their clients and employees are loyal, there is nothing I can do to steal them. Chances are that these clients and employees are open to other options already because they are not as happy as they would like to be with their current provider — your competition. You deserve this business and they do not. This is just one tactical story I share in my book.     

Q. What did your staff and client’s think of you doing this? 

A. Great question! Almost all clients are glad that I am on their side. They learn how to do these things too. We put pictures of the competition’s staff on our office walls, and we match them up to our staff in order to show who they are selling and servicing against. You against them. They want to stop us from being the best, being as successful as we deserve. If we do this right, then the really good employees and accounts from the competition will be with us in due time and then we will make them loyal. This is what driving a real sales and service culture is all about. In tough economic times, we can choose to hunker down and wait for the market to recover, or we can join an “unfair” fight and take what we rightfully earn. 

Don Farrell’s new book, “Ethical Theft...How to Steal Business From Your Competition goes on sales September 1, 2009. To reserve your advance copy please click here: http://www.freshrevenues.com/site/store

Bill Todd is one of the travel industry’s most sought after sales motivational speakers and trainers. He is the co-author with Stephen Covey of Speaking of Success. www.BTodd.com