Making a Difference

3 ways to differentiate without changing your offering

Competitive advantage is important, but tends to be short lived. We’ve found that no matter how successful a company is at creating something unique, it’s not long before someone else has picked up on the idea.

Even Apple, with their slogan ‘Think Different’, are fighting to keep ahead of the competition with each new product they introduce. With so many similar products and services out there, if you don’t differentiate it just comes down to price, which puts pressure on your profits.

However, differentiation isn’t just about your product or service. What we’re seeing is that by simply changing your approach you can really set yourselves apart from the competition.

Here are three ways to differentiate that we’ve seen work effectively:

STEP 1 – Talk to different people

We find a lot of salespeople keep talking to the same person when they contact their clients. But a ‘must-have’ for someone in procurement might not be a key driver for the Finance Director or MD – and they might have the final say.

STEP 2 – Have a different conversation

Getting heard above the crowd isn’t easy especially as buying is becoming increasingly commoditised. So try having conversations with your prospects that the competition aren’t. When you talk about new trends, legislation and advantages that will specifically benefit them you grab their attention and they start to see you in a different light.

STEP 3 – Be different not better

When salespeople talk to us about differentiation it often seems as if they want us to give them a magic wand, with new products or services that are better than anything else in the market. But the answer is probably already within their grasp if they change their thinking just a little.

“It’s very easy to be different but very difficult to be better”
Jonathan Ive – SVP Design, Apple

Read the full article here

Put all three of these together and, in our experience, you’ll be having conversations that your competitors aren’t – and creating your own point of difference.

Need some help getting your sales people to differentiate?

Call Cathy now on 01189 526993 or email her at cathy.bennett@verticalsales.co.uk