The power to be different

You are not a commodity, and neither is your company— make sure your customers know that

By Tom Reilly -- Industrial Distribution, 6/1/2006

As humans, we spend much of our lives trying to fit in. From our earliest social interactions, we want to be a part of something bigger than ourselves. We want to: make the right friends, wear the right clothes, go to the right schools, drive the right car, listen to the right music, hang out at the right places, get the right job, marry the right person, buy the right home, and join the right clubs. Whew! How could so much right feel so wrong?

In the process of fitting in, we lose sight of the fact that we have a right to be different...a genetic mandate to stand out. Your DNA has a 10-billion-billion-to-one chance that any other person will match it. If you leave your fingerprints on a glass, we know you were there. Your iris is so unique that it can be used to clear you through airport security. You are the only thing like you for all of time; a one-shot deal; a bona-fide individual.

You are not a commodity.

I once read that a commodity is a product differentiated only by its price. Is price the only difference between you and your competition? Is everything about you and your solution exactly the same as the competition?

Harvard marketing professor Ted Levitt wrote, "There is no such thing as a commodity, only people who act and think like commodities."

Are you willing to concede that your package is no better than anything else in the market?

Why do salespeople have such difficulty standing out from the competition? Why do salespeople struggle with the question: "Why should I buy from your company versus the competition?" My guess is that they spend too little time thinking about the stand-out difference that makes them outstanding.

The "unique selling proposition" has been around since the 1940s. It is the one thing that makes your offering different than anyone else—the stand-out difference. It is a concise statement of your definable and defendable differences.

Eighty-two percent of salespeople fail to differentiate themselves from the competition. It could be that the customer's price objection is another way of saying: "The reason I won't pay more to buy from you is that I don't see a dime's worth of difference between you and the rest of the pack."

That you cannot articulate the differences between your solution and the competition doesn't mean that you are not different. It means that you either don't know what makes you different or you haven't perfected your message. Answer these questions to build your story of value:

• How is your product different?
• How is your company different?
• How are you different?

Be proud of your differences. Celebrate what makes you and your company unique. And the next time your customer asks you, "Aren't you and the competition really in the same business?" answer them by saying, "We're in the same industry, but we're not in the same business and here's why."