How do you enable sales in deals where competitors claim to have the same functionality but don't?

Use "trap setting questions." Craft a question for the customer to ask your competitor that will expose the lacking functionality. In extreme cases you could send a video showing that the competitor doesn't do what they say. good luck!

1. Deep Understanding of Customer Needs: Ensure your sales team has a deep understanding of customer needs and pain points. This allows them to clearly differentiate your offering from competitors, even if the functionality seems similar on the surface.

2. Highlight Unique Value Proposition: Emphasize the unique value proposition of your product. Focus on aspects that go beyond basic functionality, such as ease of use, scalability, integration capabilities, performance, security, customer support, or industry-specific features.

3. Showcase Success Stories and Case Studies: Share compelling success stories and case studies that demonstrate the tangible benefits and results achieved by customers who have chosen your product over the competitors. Highlight specific use cases and outcomes that showcase the distinct advantages of your solution.

4. Leverage Competitive Analysis: Conduct a thorough competitive analysis and provide your sales team with detailed insights into the strengths and weaknesses of the competition. Equip them with talking points that highlight the areas where your product outperforms and delivers a superior experience. This helps build confidence in the sales team and provides them with data-backed arguments during customer conversations.

5. Tailor the Message: Customize the sales messaging to address the specific needs and pain points of each customer. Demonstrate how your product not only meets their functional requirements but also offers additional benefits and differentiators that competitors cannot match. Personalize the pitch to showcase how your solution aligns with the customer's unique business objectives and strategic goals.

6. Conduct Proof-of-Concept or Product Demos: Offer the opportunity for potential customers to experience your product firsthand through proof-of-concept trials or product demos. This allows them to see the unique functionality, ease of use, and value that sets your product apart.

If you can objectively point to artifacts where there are gaps in functionality e.g., website, customer reviews via third-party sites, etc - that would be my suggestion. From there, take control over the conversation and instead focus the sales conversation on where you win and how you're the best choice to solve the customers unique problem (with defensibility). I way to position an objection to this, "We've heard from customers that x, y, z is very important to them - is this important to you? Cool, we have that and are the leader for x solution, here are the boom stats to prove it..."

Generally there are two elements to this answer. First is that the sales team had qualified the lead with the appropriate discovery questions to ensure that the target for the deal is a good fit for your company’s solution. Assuming that is the case, then spending time with the sales team in training and creating cheat sheets for them on typical faqs that come up in conversation about specific use cases or features can be helpful.

When competitors claim to have the same functionality, the best response isn’t to debate features—it’s to reframe the conversation around business outcomes, execution, and customer impact. Instead of engaging in a checklist war, sales needs to position the solution in a way that makes the competitor’s claims irrelevant. The focus should be on who solves the customer’s problem better, scales with their needs, and delivers measurable value.

Rather than responding with "We do it better", sales teams should guide customers to uncover the gaps themselves. Asking diagnostic questions like, "How does their platform handle real-time data across distributed teams?" or "What’s required to configure their system for your specific workflow?" forces prospects to consider execution—not just feature parity. If a competitor claims to offer automation, visibility, or integrations, the key is demonstrating how your solution actually delivers on those promises with less friction, higher accuracy, or a more scalable approach.

Customer proof is a critical differentiator. Rather than just making claims, sales should use real-world examples of companies that switched from a competitor after realizing that "feature parity" didn’t translate into efficiency, scalability, or ease of use. This shifts the discussion from functionality to why businesses actually succeed with your solution.

For skeptical buyers, seeing is believing. A side-by-side demo or a proof-of-concept exercise that highlights where competitors fall short in real execution is far more powerful than a sales pitch. If a competitor claims to have deep security analytics, showing how their platform misses critical risk signals compared to yours makes the difference undeniable.

The ultimate solution framing is moving beyond a feature-by-feature discussion and reinforcing why your platform is the right choice for their business, both now and as they scale. Instead of reacting to competitive claims, sales should be leading the conversation: "This isn’t just about having a feature. It’s about whether the solution actually delivers the outcomes you need, with speed, accuracy, and reliability." The best response to “They have the same functionality” isn’t to disprove it—it’s to make it clear why it doesn’t matter.

Figure out the "probing questions" that your prospective customer could ask to discover the truth of your competitor's product. Know why that functionality matters and have a clear explanation of what the customer can't do without having it. Package this information up into competitive plays that your sales team can run: Explaining the difference, showing the difference, giving the prospect the probing questions they should ask of everyone they are evaluating. Create a sample RFP, buyer's guide, or similar document that lays out evaluation criteria early in the sales cycle, when prospects are doing their research and probably before they have engaged with your sales team.