How to Be Different: ‘Being Remarkable’ – the salesman
‘Being Remarkable’
In his post How to Be Different: ‘Being Remarkable’ Paul Willians explains, based upon the book of Seth Godin “Free Prize Inside”, how to be different and being remarkably with your products in order to:
- get noticed
- to stand out from the crowd
It’s not enough simply to offer a product that is different… it needs to be WOW different, REMARKABLY different, RADICALLY different.
How is it done?:
“Differentiation is the act of making your products different from the competition (and each other) so that people pick you. But differentiation is selfish. It assumes that people are interested enough in your field to seek you out, to compare options and make a smart choice…”
This is a great assessment, but it has its limitations.
The problem of mature products
The definition works fine for new products or services, or those that are still on the innovation track.
However once this stage is over, when your products or solutions are mature and known since years the differentiation becomes a problem as no real new development takes place.
How can you differentiate in a market with mature products?
Actually this is the problem with the majority of products.
There is no possibility or chance of changing the product or service:
Most marketing and sales people are stuck within the current product offering and can’t change the product or service.
Of course colors or packaging can be changed, but the actual product remains the same.
Most products or solutions on offer can be replaced by similar products from the competition with slightly or minor different features.
Then there is no remarkable differentiation with these products.
And people are fast in distinguishing between a real difference or advantage and a not useful feature.
Why “no change possible”?
In order to obtain competitive or low priced products, mass production is required.
Mass production dictates uniform or standard products, thus the differentiation is inexistent or very minor.
Also as a producer of goods you don’t want to take risks, thus the products are designed for the average or most likely customer.
Investments in design, production facilities, training and marketing required for products in mass production is high. As the risk has to be minimized not much variations on the same theme are possible.
Thus in the end most products look the same.
Change requires time for design, preparing for production, and for marketing: the differentiators need to be explained to customers and they have to understand them.
Marketing
Some brands try to differentiate:
- Marketing can try to positioning the product or service at the high end of the pricing range, but you need to come up with compelling reasons for this.
- Marketing can also promote intangible benefits, benefits that are hard to measure.
- Marketing is also capable of creating a fear. Fear of buying the product with less quality from th competition.
This is in most cases about branding and trust, but hard to be different
Difference by the salesman
In those cases where the product is defined and fixed, the pricing is competitive, it is the job of the salesman to make the difference.
Else the products won’t sell or solely on lower price.
The salesman has to come up with differentiating ideas, advantages or benefits compared to the competition.
These can be:
- Ordering conditions: being flexible with order quantities or timing
- Delivery conditions: being flexible with scheduling and speed of deliveries
- Packaging: adjust the packaging to the need of the customer
- Labeling: using suited labels to match the client needs.
- Payment terms and conditions: flexible in scheduling the payments
Typically these additional features relate to the supply, the logistics, the use within the buying company or payments.
The salesman can also win the confidence of the purchasing party, by having:
- The references
- The better or more convincing story
- The suited advantages and benefits for each person involved in the decision process
- The better understanding of the situation of the customer
- The best matching proposition thanks to the knowledge about the customer
- The established relationship
The salesman needs to be inventive, when there is no more invention in the product.
The salesman makes the difference
How to be different: “Being Remarkable” is in many cases organized or orchestrated by the salesman.
He needs to make the difference, as changing the product or the service is not possible because of the too high investment.
He needs to position the product or service to the needs or the perspective of the customer.
He needs to be remarkable, as he needs to make the sales for his commission and the company.
Selling and getting paying customers is the driving force behind every company.
Some salesmen sell more than others, they do make the difference.
Never forget:
If you have a remarkable different product, marketing needs to tell and explain the potential customers the difference and the benefits related.
This takes time, money as the potential customers need to understand the benefits and advantages.
Thus the total investment is much higher than the costs involved with designing and developing the product or service.
More from LEADS Explorer
- The Good, The Bad and The Ugly salesman
- How to catch the lost leads of your leaking funnel
- How to be remarkable enough on the Internet to get blogged?
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Nice writing style. Looking forward to reading more from you.
Chris Moran
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