DIFFERENTIATION / VALUE JUSTIFICATION ?

GOLLY ! Late again. You would presume that business is so good that I don't have any time to keep up with my postings to this website and my blog ( http://my-salescoach.blogspot.com/ ). Well, that's partially true ! But, I never have enough business !

Our topic this week is as you can see, "diversification / value justification". What does that mean. It means that price becomes the only factor that matters when you do not create sufficient justification for spending more. You allow the customer to make you a commodity. Quality of your product or service and what you bring to the sale evidently has no value. So, it becomes a real simple issue for the customer (s). Just go to Wal-Mart - they sell everything cheaper ! I being mean - I love and respect Wal-Mart very much.

To avoid being caught in that situation a lot; you have to find ways to bring measurable value to the sales arena. How do you do that ? By differentiating yourself from the competition. Either real or perceived you must create extra value ! You can do that a number of ways but here is where a lot of sales professionals get lost. And what happens, most of the competition waits until they find out what you are doing differently and they steal your rhetoric, your value, and enhance the whole deal with their puffery ( that's the legal term for BS ).

This is not for the weak or lazy ( most of your competition ). It takes a lot of ONGOING EFFORT to continue to distinguish yourself from the competition. Why ? Because whatever you do different, they will eventually steal or mimic. So, the most successful salespeople and organizations are constantly BRAINSTORMING what they can do, offer, detail, and bring to the sale that's different and / or has added value.

I can tell you with a lot of experience that when coaching individuals and or sales teams; this challenge is overwhelming. Part of it is a lack of vision ( seeing what to do ), part of it is no experience, part of it is not wanting to change, part of it is not recognizing what the customer needs to justify paying more to themselves or to management, and part of it is expecting someone else to provide all of this awareness and progressive thinking.

I don't care who you are or what you sell; there a million things that you can do to differentiate yourself from the competition ! And most of them cost very little ! Try setting down and accepting this challenge ! ( as an individual or a team )

Or you could get a sales coach !!!!

I didn't mention the economy today - I'm tired of talking about it. We need to find buyers !

NOW GO SELL SOMETHING - YOUR BABY NEEDS A NEW PAIR OF SHOES !