Chapter Three

Distinctive Selling

By Scott McKain

When Jack got home, he went to his laptop and booted it up. He jumped onto his company's website, logged in, and began scanning their list of training products. He went to the M's and found McKain. It listed an audio program and a video program. Jack put the computer cursor over "video" and clicked it.

After a few seconds, the screen changed to a view of a large stage. The crowd was applauding. Out walked a man, probably in his fifties. He wore black rimmed glasses and had a neatly trimmed beard. Jack settled into his chair as Scott McKain began to address his audience.

No customer or prospect is ever going to be thrilled because the sales techniques you use are exactly like your competition.

There was a time not too long ago when Chevy owners felt superior to those poor souls driving Fords and vice versa. People gained identification through the goods that they purchased, the stores where they shopped, the institutions where they invested — no matter the level of price or sophistication of the product.

However, over the past several years, we have seen the homogenization of practically everything. The car that I drive probably looks a lot like yours, no matter the nameplate. The big store where I shop almost certainly appears and feels a lot like where you do business. Where I bank and where you invest are most likely remarkably similar, no matter the logo on the door, no matter the community where it’s located.

I would go as far as to suggest that many challenges that sales professionals encounter with customers spring from that central point: customers cannot determine a meaningful difference between you and your competitor for their business.

Please remember – customers always have to find a point of differentiation in order to make a decision. If there’s no discernable advantage one way or another, then customers apply the ultimate differentiator: price.

Let’s examine how we got in the mess – and, then I’ll prescribe four specific strategies you can execute in order to stand out and move up, and sell distinctively.

There are three primary destroyers of differentiation. They are:

  1. Copycat competition
  2. Technology has changed the customer
  3. Familiarity breeds complacency

Let’s briefly examine each of these:

Destroyer #1: Copycat Competition

When my competitor creates a point of differentiation and gains an advantage – whether through a product or service…or individual selling skills – my natural inclination is to either:

If you get slightly ahead of me with a new advancement or strategy, my natural response is to replicate it. If I can discover a method to duplicate your effort, it then becomes easy for my customer base -- and the team inside our organization -- to believe you no longer have a competitive advantage.

If your new method has enabled you to gain significant traction in the marketplace, then my best move appears to be to attempt to imitate whatever created your advantage, and attempt to marginally do you one better in order to compete with you in sales.

Notice the problem: in both examples, all efforts are based upon what my competitor is doing, not necessarily what my customers desire. And in most cases, such advancements are evolutionary -- not revolutionary.

Unfortunately, in many industries and in many cases, I am probably thinking I don’t want to stick my neck out too far -- because you may chop it off in front of our customers and prospects. (Since we are competitors, my customers are your prospects and vice versa.) You feel the same way. The result is incremental, uninspiring advancement that appears to be “safe.”

In the long run, however, this approach is anything but safe! Instead, what we are doing is destroying any points of differentiation that can better serve our customers, and enhance our sales results.

Destroyer #2: Technology Has Changed the Customer

A study by Accenture, (Investopedia, 2010), the global consulting firm, found that “73% of shoppers with smartphones favor using their smartphone to handle simple tasks in stores compared with 15% who favor interaction with an employee.”

Roll that one around in your head for a bit. Almost three out of every four shoppers would prefer to stand in a store, pull out their iPhone or Android, and search for information, rather than to ask one of the sales professionals working there.

Why should I deal with a potentially “pushy” salesperson when I can obtain the information I need online? And, what could he or she tell me that a Google search can’t?

This could be why, according to Reservoir Digital, (Resevoir Digital, 2013) an article in the Times of London reported that we used to average five visits to the showrooms of car dealers to make a decision on the purchase of an automobile – and now, the average has declined to 1.3.

Author Daniel Pink explained this phenomenon in greater detail during an interview with National Public Radio (NPR, 2012):

“Twenty years ago…when you walked into a Chevy dealer, the Chevy dealer knew a heck of a lot more about cars than you ever could ... you didn’t have the adequate information. And so this is why we have the principle of ‘caveat emptor’ -- buyer beware. You gotta beware when the other guy knows a lot more than you.

“Well, something curious has happened in the last 10 years in that you can walk into a car dealership with the invoice price of the car, something that even the salesmen/ women at car dealers didn’t know too long ago. And so in a world of information parity, or at least something close to it, we’ve moved -- ‘caveat emptor’ is still good advice, but equally good advice for the sellers is ‘caveat venditor’ -- seller beware.”

How do you change the sales environment when your prospective customers don’t even want to talk to you?

In other words, technology – from mobile smartphones to Google searches – has dramatically changed how customers think…and what customers really want.

Here is your primary opportunity: You have to move from thinking about providing “information” to delivering “wisdom.”

In other words, while I may not need you for evidence and product specifications, I very well may find value when you can provide me with assistance and help. And, all you have to do is look at the difficulties of a few major sales organizations to understand the significance of this point.

Destroyer #3: Familiarity Breeds Complacency

One adage I heard often from my mom was “familiarity breeds contempt.”

As much as I hate to dispute my mother’s advice, my experience has taught me this one isn’t true. If you become more familiar with someone, it does not automatically guarantee that you will become contemptuous of him or her.

When something like a product or service – or you, as a sales professional – is present to the point that you become thoroughly familiar and are boundlessly available, customers do not then begin to scorn it, hate it, or express disdain toward it.

Instead, we begin to take you for granted. We become complacent and presume you will always be around and that nothing is going to change (or improve).

We see this all the time in our personal lives. We, unfortunately, take for granted the people who are closest to us. We don’t intend disrespect toward our spouses, for example. However, a steady drift toward complacency just seems to be a part of the human makeup.

Perhaps we presuppose if something or someone is overwhelmingly familiar, it represents a garden we no longer need to tend as enthusiastically or systematically. We erroneously assume, for example, that the love of our spouse will always be there on the vine, and it doesn’t require as much nurturing, intensity, or the commitment of time that is demanded by something that we have yet to acquire.

Yet, it’s not just the fact that your best and longest-term customers may be taking you and your efforts for granted. The fact is that you may be a bit complacent about their business, as well.

Every sales professional who I’ve met on the planet has some kind of acquisition strategy -- in other words, a plan for attracting new customers. (Some are good – others not – but all sales professionals want to acquire more sales. Isn’t that part of the reason you’re attending this program?)

However, fewer sales professionals have a retention strategy planned with the same degree of passion and precision; a precise program that outlines specific steps to retain current customers, while growing and expanding the business we are obtaining from them.

When we take something for granted, we no longer play as active a part in its growth and cultivation. If that happens in regards to a professional selling relationship, it often means that the association dies for lack of attention. For a sales professional, multiply that impact across a wide range of customers, and the result can be fatal for your career.

Consider this amalgamation of challenges:

How could you possibly consider doing business in today’s economic and competitive climate without selling in a distinctive manner?

Creating distinction in your marketplace -- and starting now -- is vital in creating the future you want in today’s hyper-competitive sales economy. The great news is that you can employ strategies that will build sales distinction immediately.

The Four Cornerstones of Distinction

Through my research and experience, I’ve discovered there are Four Cornerstones of Distinction. Every salesperson must draw upon these qualities to develop differentiation and uniqueness in the marketplace. These cornerstones will, at first, appear to be elemental. However, the more you study them -- and what it requires to be successful at each of these points -- the more you will realize how spectacularly challenging it is to execute them.

When you think about it, though, this paradox may also answer an important question: Why is it so rare to see true distinction in sales? The answer is that we:

  1. Do not recognize or understand these cornerstones
  2. Fail to develop and implement the strategies necessary to execute the cornerstones
  3. Or, both

The great news, however, is that you can change this situation instantly. As you discover the Cornerstones of Distinction, you can immediately begin to plan how you will harness their power to become a more distinctive sales professional.

The Four Cornerstones of Distinction are:

Cornerstone #1: Clarity

I’m constantly asking sales professionals these important questions: “Who are you? How would you specifically define yourself and your company? What makes you distinctive in the marketplace? What are the advantages you have, from the customer’s perspective?”

And guess what? Most cannot answer the questions.

By asking, “Who are you?” I do not mean your title, the company’s name, or the name of the product you sell. The answer I’m seeking goes much, much deeper. I want to know what is compelling about you, what will create points of distinction about you, and what will establish a connection between us?

Here is the reason many -- and I suggest most -- sales professionals cannot answer the question: they do not have clarity about who they really are…and what advantages they bring to the customer.

Not as Easy as You Might Imagine

It’s just flat-out difficult to discipline our organizations and ourselves to first discover, and then be clear about who and what we are. My experience is that it is incredibly more challenging than most companies and professionals anticipate.

Bob Engel, CEO of CoBank, supports this point enthusiastically. CoBank, based in Denver, is one of the 25 largest banks in the nation, and also moved into the Top 10 banks in the United States in terms of commercial and industrial lending. He recently told me his surprise about how difficult it was to be absolutely precise about the clarity of the organization -- even though surveys were showing employees were scoring the company high on its corporate mission.

Part of why Engel mentioned Clarity as such a difficult Cornerstone is that being clear about “who you are” also commands that you possess clarity about “who you are not!”

Clarity means you are precise about who you are—and just as exact about who you are not!

It is easy to stand upon generalities and modify them so you don’t lose the attention of prospective customers.

In my experience, for example, many financial advisors have stated their practice focuses on a precise target so they may understand the specific needs of that respective group. Naturally, this approach would enable the advisors to provide a special and distinct service.

Then, however, people who fail to fit the target profile come along and want to invest—and the advisors take their business anyway!

When I ask them why they moved away from the clarity that would provide distinction, these sophisticated professionals have said in all seriousness, “But what if they win the lottery and I had turned them away?” Good grief! If that is now the standard, these advisors should start prospecting at convenience stores, because that is where most winning tickets are sold.

People always respond to this by asking me if this “clarity stuff” means a sales professional should turn away customers.

The answer is yes!

As you discover the other Cornerstones of Distinction, you will come to understand that truly differentiated sales professionals never try to attract everyone. Through their clarity, they take themselves out of the running for the business of some potential customers…which puts them in exactly the right position for their target market.

Don’t get me wrong – I’m not talking about running away from…or ignoring…sales opportunities. I’m suggesting that Clarity is the first step in a strategy where we will attract customers, as well as pursue them. And, customers aren’t attracted to a generic they can already obtain somewhere else.

I was involved in a series of consulting assignments with multimillion-dollar producers who are affiliated with the largest financial service brokerage in the country. As a result of the research developed with my good friend Dr. Rick Jensen of the Performance Center, located at PGA National Resort in Parkland, Florida, we know the highest performing financial advisors have developed highly specialized practices and extraordinary clarity regarding their points of distinction in the marketplace.

In eight separate meetings in a single day, I asked leading professionals in the field, “What differentiates your practice from those of other financial advisors?” Six times I received the response, “We provide great client service.” Twice, the answer was, “I don’t know.”

Consider that for a moment; these are successful financial sales professionals! Granted, they may not be the absolute best of the best, but they aren’t failures, either. Yet somehow they have missed the point that if they want to achieve higher levels of success and profitability, the most important step they can take is to make their practice differentiated from the scores of others in the same business.

Do they really think “great client service” is a differentiator? Does that mean that others in their industry are indicating they provide “pretty awful client service” to their investors? I doubt it.

The top financial advisors I have worked with are highly specialized. For example, they work exclusively with surgeons. Rick Jensen knows one professional who works only with PGA golfers -- and another who works only with people involved in the sport of polo.

If you have a pool of cash to invest, but are not a part of the polo scene, this advisor will refer you to someone else. (And, according to Dr. Jensen, he has!) By the way, Rick Jensen also reports that by turning away the business that is not a good fit, they have become among the most profitable of all professionals in their industry.

If I focus on surgeons, for example, as my clearly defined client base, I can learn their schedules, participate in their charitable activities, understand their unique professional challenges, educate myself in some of their specialized terminology, host client events that appeal to their specific needs, plan my work hours to fit the times that are easiest to contact them -- and be contacted by them -- and much more.

However, this also answers the question of why so few in the sales profession are able to attain significant distinction.

Can you begin to imagine how difficult it is to learn all of this and more about a specific customer base? Therefore, most sales professionals end up knowing their products, but not their customers. We’re often a mile wide and an inch deep when it comes to knowing what would really make a difference for the very people we seek to serve. Or we try to serve so many that we end up truly engaging very few.

The truth is you don’t have enough time or energy to create highly distinctive customer experiences for a widely varied assembly of wildly diverse customers.

On the other hand, you might say that Wal-Mart sells “everything to everybody” -- but that would not be accurate.

What if you want a tuxedo? What about a designer gown? You cannot find them at Wal-Mart. Marketing low prices every day on mass-market consumer items is clearly what Wal-Mart is all about. There is a sizable amount of clarity regarding who the company is, even though it handles thousands of items.

Part of the reason Clarity is so vital is: You cannot differentiate a generic.

Therefore, your goal is to be as precise as possible about who you are and what your organization is and what it is not. Be ready to fire prospects and customers who fail to fit your format.

Clarity is essential because those same customers asking, “Who are you?” will not present you with multiple opportunities to define yourself. After dealing with so many non-distinct organizations and professionals, they are vowing that they “won’t get fooled again.”

However, you can be clear about who and what you are -- and clearly be boring! If you cannot engage your customers and prospects, how can you expect them to perceive you have created sales distinction?

That’s why it is critical to move to the second Cornerstone of Distinction: Creativity!

Cornerstone #2: Creativity

If you are going to inspire productive creativity -- the kind that can stimulate strategies that will have immediate positive impact upon your sales success -- here are the three action steps you should take.

Step One: Drive It Down

Your first step is to rely upon your clarity to break down all customer interaction into the smallest units or steps possible. Ask yourself this question: What is every point of contact a customer has with me, or my organization? Make an extremely detailed list.

It’s time to be very specific about the process. If you are like most sales professionals -- you aren’t finding too much in the way of differentiation.

For example, when a customer rents a car, it seems these are the twelve basic points of contact:

  1. Call the agency (or travel agent) and make a reservation or use the Web site of the agency or travel company to secure a reservation.
  2. Travel to the agency location by its bus (at the airport) or by transportation I arrange (for local locations).
  3. Enter the agency and proceed to the counter.
  4. Process paperwork and provide payment for the reservation.
  5. Obtain driving directions.
  6. Proceed to the rental car.
  7. Exit the lot through security.
  8. Drive the rental car for the period of my contract with the agency.
  9. Return the car to the agency location.
  10. Determine the final cost of rental based upon contract agreement and fuel level.
  11. Complete car check-in.
  12. Depart agency.

Your next step

The next step you should take should be to develop a similar list of the points of contact for:

It’s important that you drive this down to the most precise aspects possible. Every point of contact with your customer provides an opportunity for distinction!

Step Two: Pick a Point

Now that you know that every one of these specific items is an opening for you to create space from your competition, the next step is to review each point of contact to ascertain where you can develop sales differentiation.

Enterprise Rent-A-Car has been clear about what it is -- a company that rents automobiles. Yet when the company broke down the specific points of contact with customers, sales managers realized that at some point the renter has to obtain possession of the car. At other companies, customers must transport themselves to the rental locations, either at the airport or at a local office.

Not only did Enterprise follow the first two steps of driving it down and picking a point, the company followed through with step three.

Step Three: Develop a Difference

In 1957, Jack Taylor launched Enterprise Rent-A-Car from the lower level of a St. Louis car dealership.

By driving it down, picking a specific point -- the manner in which the customer gets to the product -- and developing a difference, Taylor’s Enterprise has grown into the largest rental car company in America.

Enterprise realized the creative opportunity for differentiation. If all the company did was to incrementally improve their airport locations against its competition at Hertz and Avis, Enterprise probably would have remained trapped by the Three Destroyers of Differentiation, and in all likelihood, the company would have collapsed.

As it is, you can almost visualize the creative moment in a brainstorming meeting when someone said, “Wait a minute! What if we go to our customers? What if we take the car to them?” What differentiates Enterprise? You already know the answer: “At Enterprise, We Pick You Up.”

By being creative -- within the boundaries of their established Clarity -- Enterprise developed a creative point of distinction.

You can do the same as a sales professional, if you just follow those three steps: Make a list of every point of contact you have with customers and prospects; pick a single point; develop a difference at that point.

The main point I want you to consider is that imitation usually generates neither passion nor distinction. If you are copying from others -- even if you are imitating the best in your field -- you are propagating a “me too” approach that will continue to cast you adrift on the sea of sameness. Creativity is the second cornerstone on the path to sales distinction!

Cornerstone #3: Communication

You and your organization probably have access to reams of data about what your customers are purchasing and why.

The problem is only a fraction of these assessments will provide real insight into how you can take your clarity -- now combined with creativity toward building unique and highly specific points of differentiation between you and your competitors -- and turn your information into communication that truly connects with your customers and prospects.

Legendary computer scientist Alan Kay, formerly of Disney and now head of the Viewpoints Research Institute, has said: “Why was Solomon recognized as the wisest man in the world? Because he knew more stories -- proverbs -- than anyone else. Scratch the surface in a typical boardroom and we’re all just cavemen with briefcases, hungry for a wise person to tell us stories.”

Dr. Kay is exactly right – a story is the connecting point that takes our clarity and creativity, and communicates our distinction in a manner that compels our customers and prospects to purchase from us.

We are story junkies. We get hooked on good stories. They can be scripted, as soap operas have demonstrated for decades before millions of viewers (and listeners in the days of radio) on a daily basis. The stories can be reality-based, as Survivor -- and the glut of imitators that have followed in the many years since -- has clearly proved.

It is no coincidence that these organizations that we are tired of hearing about -- Southwest, Starbucks, Apple, and so forth -- are the ones most frequently telling their stories in a precise and compelling manner.

So, why is it so difficult to find other examples? I suggest the reason is that so few sales professionals in business today understand the basics of telling the compelling story.

In today’s hyper-connected world, customers have the ability to Google search the information – what they’re desiring from you (as mentioned earlier) is wisdom! It’s not that customers don’t want facts, figures, and insight – it is that they want them delivered inside a wise, compelling story from you.

There are many great texts on creating and delivering great sales stories. (If you’d like to read more on crafting compelling narratives, read anything by Joseph Campbell.) In fact, the information is so readily available, there’s no excuse for any sales professional to have failed to create an engaging narrative.

The old adage “build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door” is horribly incorrect and totally out of date. If the planet is unaware of your advantages -- and cannot Google the path to your doorway -- no one will ever arrive to obtain your product.

(Besides that, what customer “beats a path” to anyone’s doorway? Just ship it to me overnight...)

If, however, you have developed clarity about who and what you are... and creativity that generates space between you and your competitors...and, if you have communicated those results through a compelling story tailored for the precise audiences you desire to attract...you have made major strides in developing the kind of distinction all organizations and professionals covet.

Yet, there is one remaining cornerstone! And it is the one that can propel you to greater sales heights than perhaps you ever imagined.

Cornerstone #4: Customer Experience Focus

Many, many years ago when I first started doing sales training programs, there was a line I used – as directed by the training company I was working for at that time – “Service is the first step to the next sale.”

Looking back, I realize that statements just like that are part of the reason many of us in sales have failed to understand the importance of service, and the customer experience.

Here’s the most important aspect for you to remember: Service…and the customer experience…is not just the first step to the next sale. It’s a determining factor for THIS sale!

If you walked into a place of business as a customer, how would you feel if the salesperson said, “Hey…buy something from me, and THEN I’ll take really good care of you!” Chances are, you’d find someplace else to spend your money! Customer expectations have enhanced, and the pressure upon us to create a distinctive customer experience begins the moment a prospect comes into contact with us.

Over the years, we have all heard the standard definitions for the purpose of business:

My meager attempt from my first book was simply this:

When your sales efforts -- and all of your organization’s actions -- are wrapped up in “profitably creating experiences so compelling loyalty is assured,” you have reached the point that this cornerstone advocates. It is the echelon where the customer’s experience is at the center of every decision the organization makes – and every action that you take in distinctively converting prospects into customers.

To attain this level of performance, you need to create what I have been (for more than two decades) calling the “Ultimate Customer Experience ®” (UCE).

Creating the Ultimate Customer Experience ®

Step One: Ask a Question

The first step to create the UCE is to take a legal pad and (individually or with your team) ask this question:

“What would happen if everything went exactly right in the sales process?”

Then, record all of the responses.

Doing this is more complex than it might first appear. The single most important factor here is to keep drilling down to the smallest aspects of your interactions with customers and prospects. Constantly push for what would have to happen for that contact to be exactly right.

You must examine your interaction with your customers and prospects with extraordinary precision in order to get it perfect. That’s the standard of the Ultimate Customer Experience ®.

Step Two: Engage Your Customer in the Process

When there is enhanced interaction, what follows is enhanced connectivity. Therefore, it is imperative you involve your customers in the process of creating the UCE. (After all, how can it be “ultimate” if it fails to deliver what the customer really wants?)

The most basic -- and often most powerful -- approach to involving the customer is simply to ask, “If you could describe the ultimate experience of doing business with an organization like ours (or a sales professional such as myself), what would that be?”

(Then...you listen!)

The fundamental challenge so many sales professionals experience with this approach is that just listening to the customer at this point seems counterintuitive.

When a customer presents you with an answer, it provides an opportunity to initiate a transaction. Therefore, you may find it hard to resist the chance to “close the sale.” For example, as your client answers your UCE question, she may state that she seeks something you already provide. Your natural inclination may be to butt in and say, “We do that!”

At this juncture, from the customer’s perspective, this entire process immediately appears to be nothing more than a sales technique -- not an attempt to improve their customer experience.

And, this situation might additionally mean you (unintentionally) inhibit the relationship. Just as in your personal situations with friends and family, we know that customers desire to be listened to and appreciated. When you attempt to push the customer and close a transaction at this particular juncture, you may miss out on hearing highly insightful and revealing information.

Step Three: Sync the Information

Next, match the steps you have internally developed to create the UCE with the hopes and dreams that have been expressed through this process by your customers.

In some areas, the two may fit together quite nicely -- in other words, what the customers told you they wanted in the UCE, and what you outlined through the process, turn out to be highly similar.

However, I have also found some outcomes to be highly conflicting. If this is the case, realize that you are creating the UCE to engage customers! You must give them the benefit of the doubt.

On the other hand, you’ve got to temper this aspect with a point we’ve previously discussed: sometimes your vision of the future is more enhanced and profound than that of your customers. Your insight is required to build the UCE, as well.

Step Four: Outline the Roadblocks

Another question is vital to the development of the UCE: “What roadblocks prevent us from executing the UCE for every customer or prospect at every point of sales process?”

Some will be outdated corporate policies, while others will be misguided strategies. All of these UCE obstructions should be intensely scrutinized and, hopefully, eliminated. Remember, when you deliver UCEs…sales grow!

Step Five: Execute!

If only it were that simple, right?

Look, I know that none of us -- no matter our product, service, or sales position -- can just snap our fingers and put a thorough strategy into action.

Almost always, the Ultimate Customer Experience ® boils down to your commitment to deliver it during the sales process – and, by employees throughout your organization to make it happen in every aspect of the customer relationship.

It’s critical to note: The Ultimate Customer Experience is an integral component in how distinctive professionals sell their products and services…every customer, every prospect, every time.

I have a considerable disagreement with a sales executive (whom I tremendously respect on a personal level) at a company where I have done a significant amount of work. He states, “We are primarily a sales organization. Our ‘value add’ of the customer experience enhances our access to customers and prospects and elevates our visibility in the marketplace. However, if someone on our team is hitting his or her numbers without using our customer experience program, then it’s an optional resource for that person.”

Here’s the reason for my resistance to this line of thinking: Do you think Nordstrom managers would ever -- in a million years -- say to the sales team, “Look, if you are hitting your numbers in women’s shoe sales, you can sell them any way you want?”

There is zero chance they would ever take that approach! Nordstrom would teach that its way of creating the experience and dealing with customers is just “how it’s done.” It is certainly not optional in any manner whatsoever. It is how the distinctive organization stimulates a distinctive sales process – one that has created incredibly loyal customers!

Every customer…every prospect…every time!

It All Comes Together . . .

Notice how all of the Cornerstones of Distinction are coming together?

The sales professional who will not develop clarity will find it enormously difficult to execute a strategy of customer-experience focus. If you haven’t defined who and what you really are, it becomes impossible to deliver experiences to customers that are congruent with any degree of focus. (Obviously, because you don’t have a focus!)

If you failed to be creative, and are therefore unsuccessful at communicating any points of distinction you’ve created, then the expectations of the prospect or customer aren’t in alignment with a customer-experience focus.

Center your efforts on strategic differentiation in sales through a customer experience focus.

However, let's reverse the outlook to one that is positive:

It is the final piece in the puzzle to build distinction as you differentiate yourself from your sales competition.

You Can Do It

The easiest tactic for you is to merely continue what you are currently doing. You may perceive that to "not make waves" and to "keep on keeping on" are the safest things for you to do. Let me emphatically state my belief that in the vast majority of cases, this is the most dangerous approach, no matter what you are selling.

Because of the Three Destroyers of Differentiation, your job in sales -- from an organizational and an individual perspective ~ is only going to continue to increase in difficulty.

However, if you start today to chart a fresh approach based on the Four Cornerstones of Distinction, you can begin to enhance your sales results while you nurture and grow yourself into someone known both by your customers and in your industry for "distinctive selling."

Create differentiation. Sell distinctively.

It will make all the difference.

The video presentation had just ended and the phone rang in Jack’s apartment. He walked over and picked up the line. “Hello.”

“Hi Jack,” said Digger. “What did you think of Scott’s video presentation?”

“What? How did you know I just watched it?” stammered a surprised Jack.

“Oh, my boy. I know quite a few things. Tell me, what did you think about selling in a more distinctive way?”

“Well,” said Jack with a pause to reflect. “I thought it made a lot of sense. That it is important not only to create a distinction between our products and services from our competitors, but to also create distinction in the way we sell to our prospects.”

“Well,” said Digger. “You chew on that for tonight and I will see you tomorrow. Good night.”

With that, Digger was gone. Jack hung up the phone and gently shook his head as a gentle smile formed on his lips. He was beginning to get used to this very unique individual named Digger Jones.