One of my favorite sales techniques to teach and role play is what I call “setting competitive trap doors.” It is highly effective and it gets you out of a bad habit of bashing competitors to a prospect, which I always think is bad form and counterproductive in all cases.

The technique is simple. Here is how you get set-up to use the technique effectively.

1. Start by acknowledging that a smart consumer will shop the market before making a decision. In the age of Internet lead generation they don’t even have to be smart the shopping is going to come to them anyway.
2. Educate yourself. Make sure you learn all of the strengths and weaknesses of the competitors’ products. Make a list and tack it next to your phone.

Now you are ready to set the traps.

First, and I can not repeat this enough, never use or bash your competitor’s name–it is like a free commercial and it makes you look small.

Throughout your presentation of your product(s) educate your prospective customer on mortgages and the process. This education will turn into objections on the competitor’s sales call. Here are a few brief examples:

• The Prepayment Penalty Trap

Now, Mrs. Smith we at ABC Mortgage Bank do not believe in pre-payment penalties because we know the market changes and as your mortgage professional for life it is our job to make sure you are always in the most financially advantageous mortgage for you, even if that means refinancing you next year

• The Negative Amortization or Short-Arm Trap

Mr. Jones I am recommending you look at this 3 or 5 year IO ARM because I understand you want to maximize your current cash flow, but you want reasonable protection from rising interest rates. I think this is the right product to meet both of your financial objectives.

Now, I will caution you, as you look at other products on the market, that there are others with lower monthly payments. However, they tend to be either negative amortization mortgages, which add those deferred interest payments to the back-end of the mortgage gobbling up your equity and making it impossible to refinance as interest rates decline or 1 year ARMs that will leave you exposed in one of the most obvious increasing interest rate environments in the last 10 years.

As you can see, with a couple of those gems as soon as the competitor mentions these scenarios you will have them off the phone and speed dialing you. Your education and focus on putting your prospects interest at the center of the sale will have you blast through quotas every month.