Sell Different!

All New Sales Differentiation Strategies to Outsmart, Outmaneuver, and Outsell the Competition

Lee B. Salz

• Publisher: HarperCollins Leadership
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781400222513
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Sales
• Index: Business

Game-changing new strategies to outsmart, outmaneuver, and outsell your competition!

Salespeople face fierce competition in their pursuit of winning deals. Differences in product features and functions get smaller by the minute and are not always meaningful to buyers.

How do you stand out from the pack and not just land the account, but win deals at the prices you want?

Lee B. Salz's previous ground-breaking, bestselling book, Sales Differentiation, armed salespeople with strategies to differentiate both what they sell and how they sell it. Sell Different! provides a new component of Sales Differentiation strategy to help you outsmart, outmaneuver, and outsell the competition to win more deals at the prices you want. This book provides you with the tools you need to land new accounts and grow existing ones.

The practical, proven strategies presented in Sell Different! include:

• How to defeat your toughest competitor (hint: it's not who you think it is)
• An actionable 16-phase plan to reach and engage elusive prospects
• Finding more of your best clients (it's easier than you think)
• Acquiring more referrals than you ever dreamed possible
• Virtual selling and how to harness its potential
• Neutralizing the fear of change that paralyzes buyers and kills deals
• Structuring pilot programs that advance your deals
• Identifying the critical person needed to win more deals at the prices you want
• Solving closing problems and fixing the real issue limiting your success
• Dissecting and resolving the most challenging sales objection — price!
• What 99.999% of salespeople don't do, but should
• Expanding account relationships to explode revenue and lock out the competition
• How to address a major flaw when comparing salespeople with professional athletes
• And much, much more!

If you are a salesperson, executive, or business owner who desires to win more deals at the prices you want, then this book is for you.

CHAPTER 1

DIFFERENTIATING THE BUYING EXPERIENCE AND CREATING “WOW!”

My son Steven played on his high school baseball team. While he was a darn good player, he also maintained a high grade point average. As talented a player as he was, no one could have predicted what would happen between his junior and senior years of high school.

That summer, Steven was selected to play on our city’s American Legion baseball team. The team played in a tournament that attracted college baseball coaches from throughout the Midwest. During that one-week tournament, he hit four home runs and three doubles. What better time for him to be red hot than when college baseball coaches, who were scouting talented players, were in attendance.

Pretty soon, universities began to call Steven, inviting him to visit their campuses. Seven colleges were actively recruiting him. We knew he would face a tough decision a few months down the road. Each of the schools offered the major he wanted and was in his desired location. Their tuitions were all in the same ballpark. How would Steven decide which school to select?

Predicament or Opportunity

If you have ever been through a college athlete recruiting process, you know that it is pure sales. The coaches are attempting to sell athletes on their institutions, but they have a significant limitation when trying to stand out from other schools. They can’t differentiate what they sell. They can’t add a major, create a dormitory, or move the campus. All of those are fixed assets. Their only creative selling option is to leverage Buying Experience Sell Different! strategy, which differentiates not the product, but the purchasing process. When salespeople take that approach, they create an enormous opportunity to outsell the competition because the emphasis is on their buyers, not on themselves.

Few college baseball coaches would ever describe themselves as salespeople, but that is exactly who they are when they are recruiting student-athletes. That is by no means a negative description. It’s a job requirement. Because coaches are held accountable for constructing a team of top talent, recruiting is a key factor of their success. They need to sell in-demand players on attending their institutions, but they face a lot of competition.

Many of us in sales are in the same predicament as these coaches. Since what we are selling is often very similar (or even identical) to our competitors, we have no opportunity to differentiate our products. But we are held accountable for success and are expected to win deals at the prices we want.

Realtors can’t differentiate what they sell. There is a fixed inventory of houses on the market that they can offer to buyers, just as their competitors can. They can’t differentiate the houses. How does someone pick one realtor over another when they all have the same products?

Another example is salespeople in the staffing industry. They can’t differentiate what they sell either. They are selling “people” who can work for any staffing firm. These salespeople can try to argue that their people are better than their competitor’s people, but who would believe that? How does one select a staffing firm when all staffing firms sell the same product?

This is a tough selling predicament. Or is it really a predicament at all? In fact, it’s an opportunity that many salespeople don’t take advantage of, at least not at the levels they should. They are so heavily focused on trying to differentiate what they sell that they forget they also have an opportunity to stand out from the competition when they Sell Different! Just like salespeople, some college coaches were fantastic leveraging Buying Experience Sell Different! strategy while others failed miserably.

The Only One

Have you ever noticed that when you visit a college your blood pressure jumps thirty points as soon as you enter the campus? Finding a parking spot where you won’t get ticketed or towed is like finding a needle in a haystack. The parking fiasco creates immediate irritation upon arrival at a time when your emotions are already running high.

One school we visited turned the parking hassle into a Buying Experience Sell Different! strategy opportunity. As we pulled into the lot at Hamline University, we were greeted by a sign on a parking stall with Steven’s name on it. When we saw the sign, we just looked at one another, speechless! It certainly grabbed our attention and put smiles on our faces. What an incredible first impression!

We went inside for the university tour and were greeted by the head baseball coach, Jim Weyandt. He handed us an itinerary for the day; it had our son’s name printed at the top of the page. Right from the first moments of the visit, this coach differentiated the buying experience. He created “Wow!”

What did it cost Hamline University to do those two things? A penny for the ink and paper? Because of those two small, thoughtful tactics, this college made us feel like Steven was the only athlete they were recruiting. Of course, that wasn’t the case, but that’s how we were made to feel.

Coach Weyandt described his strategy this way:

“I’m sensitive to the anxiety both the players and their families feel during the recruiting process. I take steps to make both a great first and last impression to reduce their anxiety and make them feel special. The parking sign and agenda are ways we create a strong first impression. I also make a point to meet with each athlete and their family at the end of the visit to answer questions and address any concerns they may have. My first and last impression strategy is intended to make every athlete who visits our institution feel special and has been a key reason why we attract top talent to our program.”

Salespeople and their companies have the same opportunity that Coach Weyandt described. We get caught up in our daily work and forget to make every Decision Influencer feel special. A Decision Influencer (DI) is someone who influences the decision-making process for what you sell. Throughout the book, I’ll use the expressions “DI” and “buyer” interchangeably.

To leverage the Buying Experience Sell Different! strategy, salespeople need to make every DI feel special. No one likes to feel like a number. Clients want to feel special and appreciated. Salespeople achieve that through the buying experience they create.

Not enough executives and salespeople think about the buying experience as an opportunity to Sell Different! Yet, that strategy can be the key to win more deals at the prices you want. This is especially important when you can’t differentiate what you sell. In the absence of differentiation, price is the prevailing decision factor. That’s only good news if you are the low-price provider in your industry.

Most new client acquisition processes are designed to achieve one specific outcome, which is winning deals at the prices you want. Of course, that is the correct desired outcome. The flaw is in the process design. When creating the new client acquisition process, all too often the dominant vantage point is from the seller’s side of the desk. Few consider the buyer’s perspective. To take advantage of Buying Experience Sell Different! strategy, the new client acquisition process needs to take into account a decision maker’s point of view as well. That perspective is revealed by asking yourself,

“In each phase of the buying process, what can I do different from my competitors that my DIs will find meaningful?”

Every interaction you have with a buyer provides you with opportunities to use Buying Experience Sell Different! strategy. The best news I can share with you is that your competitors probably aren’t considering that perspective, so take advantage of their shortcomings.

There are many ways to take advantage of Buying Experience Sell Different! strategy just as the head baseball coach at Concordia St. Paul University did.

Three Keys to Sell Different!

Concordia St. Paul University was another one of the schools recruiting Steven. They, too, were masterful with Buying Experience Sell Different! strategy, but approached it differently from Hamline University.

As part of the recruiting process, former athletic director and head baseball coach Mark “Lunch” McKenzie invited Steven to one of their practices to observe the program. While he was in the dugout, the players made him feel like a celebrity. One by one, they came up to him, introduced themselves, and struck up a conversation.

McKenzie described the school’s recruiting approach this way:

“As a Division II university, we are competing for top talent, not just with other universities at the same level, but also with Division I institutions. Those other schools may have more resources at their disposal than we do, but no school will demonstrate being genuine, at a greater level, than our coaching staff.

“The foundation of our recruiting approach is based on the recognition that this isn’t just a ballplayer we are recruiting; it is also someone’s son. That mindset helps our coaching staff put together a recruiting experience that we would want for our own children.

“It is this foundation that leads to the core philosophy of our athlete recruiting process: make each player feel special, be genuine, and be responsive. Blended together, those differentiate us and form our competitive advantage when recruiting top talent.”

What Coach McKenzie shared isn’t just a nice college athlete recruiting story. There’s an important message that every salesperson should embrace.

Over the years, I have had the opportunity to interview buyers about their frustrations with salespeople. Their three biggest complaints are that salespeople don’t make them feel special, they aren’t genuine, and they aren’t responsive. The three points that Coach McKenzie cites as his keys to winning can be yours as well.

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Make your DIs and clients feel special. Be genuine. Be responsive.

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None of those three points require you to differentiate what you sell, nor do they cost you or your company a penny. You also don’t need your company or even your sales manager to do anything for you to put this into practice today. You, as an individual revenue contributor, can make changes in your sales game to take advantage of Buying Experience Sell Different! strategy now. Make your DIs and clients feel special. Be genuine. Be responsive. Implementing these approaches can help you hit your quota out of the ballpark.

You can also tell, based on Coach McKenzie’s statement, that he looks at the process from the buyer’s perspective, not just his own. By inviting recruits to watch a practice, he is immersing them in the university’s culture and making them feel like they are already involved in the program. He knows that experience helps “buyers” make informed decisions.

The automotive industry is among several that are masterful at leveraging Buying Experience Sell Different! strategy. New car salespeople excel at it. One of the very first steps of their process is to have you take a test drive. They want you to feel as if you own the car. As you come back to the showroom after the drive, they are looking for that smile, which tells them you loved the driving experience. By placing you in the driver’s seat rather than taking you through a sales process, the salesperson creates a buying experience.

The home furniture industry is another example. Top furniture salespeople leverage Buying Experience Sell Different! strategy. They don’t just show a buyer a couch. They ask the buyer to sit on the couch and they leave the family to have a conversation among themselves as if they were in their own living room. Think about the layout of most furniture showrooms. Instead of rows and rows of couches, they are strategically positioned throughout the store in living room settings. This creates a buying experience for a family who can feel what it would be like to have the couch, and perhaps the rest of the living room furniture, in their home.

The software industry does this too. Top software product salespeople don’t just demonstrate the product to DIs. They have the DIs use the product, with their guidance, as part of the buying experience. This allows them to experience the tools and know what it would be like to own the product.

Authenticity

Augsburg University was another one of the schools recruiting Steven. On the day we visited, it was raining. Their head baseball coach, Keith Bateman, asked Steven to text him upon our arrival. Shortly afterwar...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Foreword By Jack Daly
• Introduction: My Inspiration for Sales Differentiation Strategy
• 1. Differentiating the Buying Experience and Creating “Wow!”
• 2. Your Toughest Competitor Is Not Who You Think It Is
• 3. Finding More of Your Best Clients
• 4. Making Your Sales Life Easier and More Lucrative
• 5. Harnessing the Power of Virtual Selling
• 6. The Critical Person Needed to Win More Deals At the Prices You Want
• 7. The Myth of Closing Problems
• 8. Dissecting the Toughest Sales Objection
• 9. The Ultimate Deal Killer
• 10. Pilots, Trials, and Trust (Or Lack Thereof)
• 11. More Than 99.999% of Salespeople Don’t Do This, But They Should
• 12. Are You About to Lose Your Largest Account?
• 13. Customer Service Is Not Account Management
• 14. The Gift Every Salesperson Has Been Given
• 15. The Major Flaw When Comparing Salespeople With Athletes
• Sell Different! Concepts
• Index
• About the Author