Sales Scripts for Engaging with Competitors' Customers

I've sent over 1,000,000 cold emails and found that these 3 elements determine whether you get ignored or booked: After analyzing thousands of campaigns across every industry imaginable, the pattern is clear. The difference between a cold email that gets deleted and one that books meetings comes down to just 3 critical elements: 1) Proprietary Benefits This is what makes YOUR solution different from everyone else's. In our campaign that generated 68 positive replies in one month, we didn't just say "we help companies hire talent." We said: "We help companies find and hire top talent in under 14 days." The proprietary benefit is the SPEED (14 days) combined with QUALITY (top talent). Without this, you're just another vendor selling the same generic solution. 2) Relevance Factors This is how you connect your offer to what they care about RIGHT NOW. In our campaign, we noticed they were actively hiring for specific positions. "I noticed [Company Name] is hiring for [Position]." This one line proves you've done your homework and aren't just blasting the same message to everyone. The more specific your relevance factor, the higher your response rate. One client went from 3% to 21% response rate just by adding this element. 3) Unique Angles This is how you position your message differently than competitors. In our campaign, we used a competitor angle: "We just helped [Competitor] fill 3 [Position] roles with candidates who increased their [Specific Metric] by 27%." This creates both FOMO and curiosity - if their competitor is seeing these results, they want to know more. When you combine all three elements in a concise email (ours was just 61 words), magic happens. Here's the full script that generated those 68 positive replies: "Hi [First Name], I noticed [Company Name] is hiring for [Position]. We help companies like [Company Name] find and hire top [Industry] talent in under 14 days. In fact, we just helped [Competitor] fill 3 [Position] roles with candidates who increased their [Specific Metric] by 27%. Would you be open to a quick call to see if we can do the same for you?" What I love about this framework is that it works in ANY industry. Just swap out the specifics while keeping the 3 core elements intact.

This week, I was catching up with a VP of Sales, and we started talking about a call that went south. A junior sales rep on their team botched the deal by bad-mouthing the competition. Instead of building trust, they sounded defensive, and the prospect started questioning whether they were hiding something. A classic mistake—one that has cost countless deals. So... when your prospect brings up the competition, do you: ❌ Trash talk them? (No—makes you look insecure) ❌ Get defensive and over-explain why you’re better? Hint: this only erodes trust and makes you seem less confident in your own solution. Here’s the better way: ✅ Acknowledge & Give Credit Where It’s Due 👉 “Yeah, [Competitor] is a solid company. They do a great job with [their strength].” ✅ Show Where You Take It a Step Further 👉 “We also offer [XYZ functionality], allowing you to address [specific pain point or use case]. But where we take things a step further is [unique advantage], giving you a complete solution instead of just a partial solution.” ✅ Differentiate with Real Customer Outcomes (Match the Same Size & Industry for Credibility) 👉 “A B2B SaaS company doing $10M ARR recently switched from [Competitor] because they struggled with [pain point, e.g., inaccurate forecasting, clunky integrations]. After moving to us, they increased forecast accuracy by 40%, automated 70% of their reporting, and saved 10+ hours per rep every week—allowing their team to focus on closing more deals instead of fixing bad data.” ✅ Turn It Back to the Prospect 👉 “What’s most important to you when choosing a provider?” Never bad-mouth the competition. Focus on differentiation and let your happy customers do the talking. Control the narrative. Win the deal. #SaaS #Sales #Advisor

Founder: "I can't find the right leads." Me: "What about the unhappy customers from your competitors?" Here's the exact system we built 👇 (We've seen 15-25% reply rates when messaging hits documented competitor weaknesses) G2. Capterra. Trustpilot. They're full of pain points, written by people actively looking for a better option. We've turned that into a repeatable outbound system. 1️⃣ Review Scraping Start by scraping negative reviews from 2-3 core competitors. a. n8n (starts at $20/mo): Build custom scraping workflows for G2, Capterra, and Trustpilot. We use this to power the majority of our review mining workflows. b. Apify (starts at $49/mo): Pre-built scrapers for most review platforms. 2️⃣ Pain Point Analysis Start by clustering hundreds of complaints into themes like feature gaps, support response time, UX issues, security concerns, and pricing. ↳ ChatGPT-4 ($20/mo) / Claude ($20/mo) / Perplexity ($20/mo) You now have a live database of what your prospects hate about their current tool. 3️⃣ Positioning Alignment Map those complaints to your actual value props. If their reviews mention "hidden fees" and your pricing is transparent, lean into that. ↳ Google Sheets (free) / Airtable ($20/mo) for mapping pain points to your positioning. Now you're not just pitching features. You're presenting a clear solution to a known frustration. 4️⃣ Data Enrichment & Targeting Once you know who's unhappy and why, you need to find the decision makers at companies using those competitors: ↳ Clay ($149/mo) / FullEnrich ($29/mo) The messaging angle is already validated, and the frustration warms the list. You're simply showing up with a better option. 5️⃣ Outbound Execution Once the data part is covered, the next step is to engage your leads and ensure your message delivers: a. Instantly.ai(starts at $37/mo) for unlimited email outreach b. lemlist (starts at $69/mo) for multi-channel outreach c. Expandi.io or HeyReach.io for LinkedIn-focused campaigns 6️⃣ System Automation Nothing replaces good strategy when it comes to outbound... but automation makes it scalable. We've built versions of this using n8n (for scraping) + ChatGPT (for clustering complaints) + Google Sheets (for inputs) + Clay + Instantly (for execution). The system runs on autopilot. Every week, we analyze what's working, tweak our messaging, and pull in fresh prospects. Once it's live, it becomes one of your highest-converting outbound motions. Why? Because you're focusing on real pain points and providing a better solution. Want to see this level of systematic outbound in action? Like and comment “competitors” and I will send you a training on how to send 1,000 personalized cold emails with AI ♻️

There are two rules in sales that most sellers get wrong. 1. Don't bad mouth your competitors 2. Convince your competitor's customers that you are better How do you win competitor's customers without bad mouthing their tooling of choice? Here's what I do 👇 1. It starts with being intellectually honest about your competitive landscape. Every product has something valuable (well... not actually every product, some are genuinely bad. I bought an electronic bathroom scrubber off of Temu for $8 and it was the worst, most regrettable purchase I've ever made in my life — story for another day). If your approach to your competitive landscape is "I am better and everyone else sucks", that's a bad place to start. Become an expert at what every one of your competitors does well and does not do well. This is sales 101 (or at least it should be but I've seen a thousand salespeople who don't know anything at all about their competitors). 2. Know 1-2 good things about every one of your major competitors. What do they do well? It doesn't even matter if your product does it better. That's not the point of this exercise. We're focused on your competitors. Do they do these things well? Write them down. 3. When someone you're selling to objects to your product because Company XYZ does so and so really well — AGREE. "You're right, Company XYZ does do that really well. I know of Customer ABC who uses their product and I'm a big fan. I can tell they really like it." Then pause. It will stun your prospect. They were expecting a fight but you disarmed them. You've taken back ownership of the sales call and can now lead the direction of the conversation. 4. Now it's time for some post-discovery discovery. "How is Company XYZ's feature helping you {main objective of tooling}?" 5. Listen, learn, take notes. You're building a case for why one good thing at a competitor can be replaced and outweighed by 2+ good things in your own product. This is not the time for feature dumping. Just listen and be inquisitive. It's okay to build a case after your call and come back with something detailed and thorough, like a platform concept or a few specific case studies. If you get stuck selling features, it's a never ending battle. Every one of your main competitors probably shares 75% of the same features and ideas in their product, just packaged differently. If you're selling boats to millionaires, you're focusing on the freedom that comes from owning a boat. The daily vacations. The romantic getaways they'll have with their spouses. The stress free family lake days after a long week. The science behind a reduction in blood pressure and increase in mental health from having regular outlets for unstructured, outdoor activities. When you sell your product, don't focus so much on what you do that their current tool doesn't. Sell an experience. Illustrate the lifestyle and money they're leaving on the table should they choose not to move forward, and double down.

A prospect tells you: "We’re also looking at [Competitor]." Most reps make one of two mistakes: - They panic and start discounting before the customer even asks. - They attack the competitor, thinking that will win trust. The best reps? They guide the conversation...without badmouthing or getting defensive. Here’s how we teach folks to do it at Sales Assembly: 1) Find the gap. Instead of “We’re better because…” ask: “What made you start looking in the first place? What’s missing today?” This gets them to focus on their pain, not a feature battle. 2) Understand their criteria. Instead of “Why are you considering them?” ask: “What’s most important to you in a solution?” You want them defining success in your playing field. 3) Focus on fit, not features. Instead of “We’re better at X,” ask: “What’s been standing out to you in each option so far?” If they highlight something critical you do better, that’s your opening. 4) Help them think ahead. Instead of “They don’t do [X] like we do,” say: “A lot of teams in your space have prioritized [X] because it impacts [Y]. How are you thinking about that?” This frames the conversation around outcomes - not a feature war. 5) Guide the decision process. Instead of “Who’s your front-runner?” ask: “What’s your process for narrowing down options?” If they don’t have a clear decision path, they’re likely to stall. 6) Make the decision feel easy. Instead of “How can we win this deal?” ask: “If you had to make a decision today, what would give you confidence?” This surfaces final concerns...so you can remove them. The goal isn’t to beat competitors. It’s to help buyers feel confident that choosing you is the right move.