Are you ‘equal to’ or ‘greater than’?

In business today it doesn’t matter what you’re selling, there is so much clutter and confusion. Competition is fierce and let’s be honest, for most it’s a mental, emotional and physical grind. I can hear the rusty cogs of progress grinding from here, it’s bloody exhausting just listening to them. Can many of you relate to my wearisome words? Of course you can.

Today, selling something both unique and profitable is tougher than ever. Not only are there a plethora of carbon-copy competitors in each space, added is the customer having so much choice and unprecedented access to information, thanks to Google.

Let’s take it back, right back to the start up phase. This is such a challenging and all-intoxicating phase, yet this is where most business failures spawn. Why? You seldom hear from the lips of fervent entrepreneurs: “I have a new idea to add enormous value to customers!” More common is the insidious: “I have a great idea to make money!” Therein lies the paradox: most business models are created to simply make money, and that’s about all they ever do, and barely.

But this is the beginning of the end because, that’s what everyone else is trying to achieve.
  
‘Equal to’ is not good enough, not anymore. The days of copying competitors and the marketplace being fertile enough to sustain everyone’s existence are long gone. So too is the effectiveness of the Yellow Pages and relying on walk-by-traffic to drive sales and thrive.

The sales terrain has changed with the ferocity of a tectonic shift. Markets are saturated with salespeople selling, doing and saying the same thing in the same way ? it’s all, ‘same-same’. Those that have visited Thailand will know what I’m talking about. Every street corner is chock-full of junk, interesting junk, but junk no less. From rip-off sunglasses and designer labels to pirate DVD’s ? it all the same and the locals affectionately refer to the junk as, same-same.

As amusing as this scene may appear, it offers spooky parallels to our western commercial world. The only difference is your products are not hoarded onto a local street corner, only a hair-raising Took-took ride away from Patpong Road, with your prices determined by the ignorance of your customer’s local tongue. Instead, your products are professionally displayed on a slick website or showroom floor. Yet if you compare your offer to almost every competitor in your space I guarantee with the exclusion of an exceptional few, your competitors are just like you!

They have the same strategy, the same value proposition, the same price, the same after sales service ? and the same… well… it’s all ‘same-same’.

To succeed in sales today, you need to break the shackles of ‘sameness’, otherwise you’re just a number in a sea of numbers. Don’t be just another ‘equal to’ for goodness sakes my innovative and courageous friend, be better, be the best, be ‘greater than’! Greater than your closest competitors! Greater than what the market says you need to be! Be greater than your current expectations. And most certainly be greater than you are today.

To be ‘greater than’ means; standing for something radically different or fundamentally better. It doesn’t necessary mean coming up with an idea no one has developed, (that’s tough to do) but it certainly means doing things differently. In any case, give your customer choice, either same-same or you! Your customers deserve better and so do you.

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Trent Leyshan is the founder and CEO of BOOM Sales! a leading sales training and sales development specialist. He is also the creator of The NAKED Salesman, BOOMOLOGY! RetroService, and the Empathy Selling Process.