During the interview for this article, Jim Holden of Holden International revealed a sales technique that’s so clever that we felt it deserved a more detailed explanation. It’s not the sort of sales technique that could work for everyone, but for the right person, in the right situation, it can be absolutely devastating to the competition.

Holden calls this technique “trapping” and describes it as “a way to ambush any competitor who might use your current troubles as an excuse to trash you in front of your customers.” Here’s how it’s done.

Step One: Answer the customer’s questions. Make sure that you have a consistent and reasonable message, preferably backed up with proactive customer references. This technique only works if the customer understands and agrees with your position.

Step Two: Casually bring up what you expect the competition to say on their next sales call. Make the statement neutral, like “some people might say that the fact that we had a bad year means that we’re going out of business. When people say stuff like that to me, I point out that some of today’s strongest companies, like IBM, have gone through periods of incredible financial stress.” Then I ask: “Would you have said the same thing about IBM?” The idea is to arm the customer with pointed questions that can be shot back at the competition when they come to spread FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt).

Step Three: Let the matter drop for a few minutes as the sales call continues. Then, during a conversational moment (like standing around the coffee pot) ease into a statement such as this: “You know one of the things that I really like about working for my company is that we never stoop to trashing the competition to try to steal sales. We think it shows a lack of respect for our customer and would imply that the vendor thinks the customer can’t make intelligent decisions based on the facts.” Voila! The trap is set.

If done correctly, the competitor’s next sales call will probably pan out as follows:
• The competitor’s rep, on the next sales call to your customer, will make some broad sweeping statement about your firm, fully expecting the
customer to react with FUD.
• The customer will be annoyed, because the competitor has, in effect, questioned the customer’s intelligence.
• The customer will respond with one of the pointed questions with which you’ve armed the trap.
• The competitor’s rep will be caught off guard and, with any luck, may become defensive – as most people do when their behavior is revealed as unethical.

Holden has seen this technique work so well that customers have called him to complain about competitors with such remarks as: “Do you know what those idiots tried to pull on me?” The competitor’s efforts backfired and Holden got the sale.