Definition
Rip and replace means removing a system a company already uses and putting a new one in its place, rather than adding the new tool alongside it. In sales, it describes winning a customer away from a competitor, which is harder than a first purchase because the buyer must also pay to switch.
Why it matters when you sell B2B
Most markets are not empty. The companies that need what you sell often already have something: a rival product, an old in-house tool or a spreadsheet. To win them you have to beat the incumbent and the cost of moving.
That makes timing everything. A company is far more open to switching near a contract renewal, after a price rise, after an outage, or when a new leader arrives with their own preferences. Those moments are trigger events. You can find who runs the rival with technographic data.
A worked example
Say you sell scheduling software and want the customers of a larger rival.
From a rival's customers to a switch listExample
- 600companies
Run the rival's product, found from technographic data.
- 70companies
Have a reason to switch now: a price rise on their plan, public complaints, or a new head of operations.
- 20companies
The switch would pay back inside a year. This is your list.
Lead with the switch, not the product: what moving involves, how long it takes, and what you do to make it safe. Buyers stay with tools they dislike because moving is risky, not because they love them.
This is account based marketing with one extra question for every account: what would it take to move?
Common mistakes
- 1Pitching features against a tool they know. They already know how the old tool works. Show them the move, not the feature list.
- 2Ignoring the cost of switching. Data migration, retraining and overlapping contracts are real costs. Name them before the buyer does.
- 3Calling mid-contract. A buyer locked in for two more years will not move. Find out when the contract renews.
- 4Attacking the incumbent. Someone at the company chose it. Criticise it and you criticise them.
- 5Targeting every user of the rival. Happy customers will not move. Look for the ones with a reason to.
Before you pitch a switch
- Know when their contract renews, or what happened that makes now different.
- List what moving involves for them.
- Show a plan with dates for the move.
- Offer a way to run both systems for a short time.
- Find out who chose the incumbent, and talk to them with respect.