In today’s competitive business landscape, standing out in sales is more challenging than ever. With countless products, services, and competitors vying for customers’ attention, it can be challenging to differentiate yourself and convince potential clients that your offering is the best choice.
But, by mastering the art of differentiation in sales, you can overcome these obstacles and increase your sales success.
Keep reading to explore strategies to help you differentiate yourself in selling. By following these competitive selling techniques, you will be able to capture the attention of your prospects, demonstrate your value, and ultimately sell more. Let’s dive right in:
Differentiating in The Selling Process
What is Differentiation in Sales?
Differentiating in sales refers to the process of distinguishing a product, service, or salesperson from the competition in the mind of the customer.
The goal of differentiating in sales is to create a competitive advantage that makes the product or service more desirable or valuable to the customer than the alternatives.
By achieving this, a company can increase its market share and profitability, and sales reps can also build long-term customer loyalty.
Also read: How To Stand Out From The Competition (Brand Differentiation)
Differentiating in Sales Vs Value Proposition: What’s the Difference?
Differentiating in sales is closely tied to your value proposition.
A value proposition is the unique combination of benefits you offer customers to solve their problems and meet their needs better than their competitors.
Differentiating in sales makes a product or service stand out by highlighting its unique features, benefits, and advantages over competitors.
By identifying and emphasizing these unique selling points, sales professionals can differentiate their offerings from those of their competitors and create more value for their customers.
When you incorporate it into your value proposition, you can demonstrate how your offering stands out from the competition and offers unique value to its customers.
Ultimately, it helps establish credibility and build trust with potential customers, increasing sales and revenue.
Why Focus on Sales Differentiation?
We all know differentiation is critical for salespeople to stand out from their competitors, especially in unpredictable markets.
But what are the other benefits? Learn more below:
Increase Competitiveness: By offering unique features or benefits, you can gain an advantage that sets you apart from the competition. Making it easier for salespeople to win business and achieve sales goals.
Enhance Perceived Value: When you effectively differentiate a product or service, it can increase its perceived value in the eyes of the customer. This can help justify a higher price point and make the sale more profitable.
Build Customer Loyalty: When you differentiate yourself on exceptional customer service, you’re more likely to build long-term customer relationships that can lead to repeat business and referrals, which are key to sustained sales success.
How to Differentiate in the Selling Process
To differentiate in the sales process, you should focus on implementing the following strategies:
1. Differentiate Yourself
Most salespeople confuse their company and its offerings as their differentiating factors.
However, differentiating yourself as a salesperson and seller is just as crucial to closing sales and promoting ongoing customer loyalty and satisfaction.
That’s because people, especially in uncertain times, will only do business with people they know, like and trust.
So, how can you be genuinely helpful to customers? Do you find that your customers respond well when you:
- Provide proactive insights?
- Provide exceptional customer service?
- Your expertise?
Determine what keeps you top-of-mind, and keep doing it, then watch as you win more sales.
2. Differentiate in the Right Areas
Following the last point, you need to consider four areas of differentiation to successfully differentiate your offering from the competition.
While some are often more important than others, depending on the buyer, you’ll need to consider all points to determine which matter most to your audience:
- Yourself: Why should anyone choose to work with you? What value do you provide? How do you help buyers achieve and exceed their goals?
- Your Offerings: What makes your offerings stand out from others? What’s the differentiating factor: low price, high price, low quality, or high quality?
- Your Company: How reputable is your company? What type of expertise do they have? How much are they recognized in their industry? Who have they helped the most? What were the results?
- What Buyers Can Achieve: What does success look like for your buyer? Does it mean a good or exceptional ROI? Less time and stress?
3. Offer Exceptional Customer Service
In a crowded marketplace, providing exceptional customer service can be a key differentiator for salespeople.
Customers are likelier to choose a salesperson who goes above and beyond to meet their needs and provide a positive experience.
It helps to build trust and rapport with customers, creating a positive experience that can encourage them to buy and recommend the salesperson to others.
Exceptional customer service can also provide a competitive sales advantage, helping the salesperson to stand out in a crowded marketplace.
By encouraging repeat business and generating positive word-of-mouth, salespeople can build a loyal customer base and expand their customer reach.
Overall, exceptional customer service is a powerful tool that can help salespeople to differentiate themselves and succeed in their sales efforts.
4. Focus on Building Relationships
To build relationships and differentiate yourself in the selling process, follow these tips:
- Listen to your customers: Take the time to listen to them and understand their needs, preferences, and pain points during sales calls. This will help you provide personalized solutions that meet their unique requirements.
- Communicate regularly: Stay in touch with your customers regularly, whether it’s through email, phone calls, or social media. This will help you stay top-of-mind with them.
- Be honest and transparent: with your customers about your products or services, pricing, and delivery times.
- Show appreciation: to your customers by thanking them for their business, sending them personalized messages or gifts, or offering exclusive discounts or promotions.
5. Provide Evidence of Happy Customers
Merely claiming to be the top choice for potential clients isn’t enough. You have to prove it genuinely.
What better way to show your expertise and authority than with a great testimonial?
Previous customer satisfaction shows future customers that they can also expect to be happy with your products or services.
To get the perfect review or testimonial, you’ll want to:
- Have your customer explain their problem before contacting you, namely, how it affected their business.
- Ask them probing questions to prompt them to discuss why they chose to work with you over your competitors.
- Ask them about their experience working with you
- Get them to clarify how they benefited from your product or service
- Kindly ask them if they will directly recommend your company
While it seems complex, getting and providing evidence of happy customers is crucial for swaying prospects’ buying decisions, hitting both the logical and emotional elements.
6. Offer Flexible Options – Customize Solutions
Offering customized solutions can be an effective way to differentiate yourself from your competitors.
This approach can provide tailored solutions that meet each customer’s specific needs and preferences, setting you apart as a specialist in your field.
Customized solutions can increase customer loyalty, with satisfied customers more likely to recommend your services to others.
Additionally, customized solutions often come with a higher price tag, which can increase profit margins.
7. Reach Out to Buyers
Reaching out to buyers is an effective differentiation strategy because it allows salespeople to establish personal connections with potential customers, gain a deeper understanding of their needs, and provide tailored solutions.
By proactively engaging with buyers, you can build trust and credibility, establish yourself as an expert in their field, and differentiate from competitors who may not take the time to reach out and establish relationships with potential customers.
Additionally, regular communication with buyers keeps the salesperson and their brand at the forefront of their minds, making it more likely they’ll consider you when ready to make a purchase.
8. Tailor Elevator Pitches
Customers have unique needs, and a one-size-fits-all approach will not resonate with everyone.
With intense competition in today’s marketplace, salespeople must provide a unique value proposition that stands out.
Personalized service and tailored solutions are critical in meeting customers’ unique requirements and building strong relationships.
By investing time in understanding customers’ needs and tailoring sales pitches to meet those needs, you can effectively differentiate yourself from your competitors and succeed in the marketplace.
9. Provide Expert Advice
With expert knowledge, salespeople can establish themselves as credible sources of information and tailor their sales approach to meet customer needs.
Salespeople can develop their expert knowledge and differentiate themselves in the selling process by taking the following steps:
- Stay up-to-date on industry trends: including new products, technologies, and best practices. Read industry publications, attend trade shows and conferences, and network with industry professionals to stay up-to-date.
- Understand customer needs: pain points, and preferences. This can be accomplished by conducting market research, listening to feedback, and gathering insights from customer interactions.
- Learn from industry experts: by reading books, attending training courses, and seeking mentorship from seasoned professionals.
- Collaborate with colleagues: to share knowledge and best practices. This can help them learn from each other and provide better customer solutions.
- Gain industry certifications: to demonstrate their expertise and differentiate themselves from competitors.
This leads to better customer relationships, repeat business, and referrals, which are essential for long-term success.
10. Prepare to Neutralize Competitor Offers
Your competition has a strong influence on your sales strategy.
Acquiring your competitors’ knowledge can help develop and increase your overall product knowledge.
Prospects often ask about competing businesses, so your answers could even help you sell your product.
An easy way to study your competition is to start by doing an internet search using keywords prospects would use to find solutions to their problems.
Visit the websites of the ten most relevant search results and grab your pen and paper.
Start noting their specialty areas, products and services offered, how they’re delivered, pricing, etc.
What do they do better and differently than you?
What do you do better and different than your competition?
Your Attitude Matters
Your attitude toward the competition is essential.
You should avoid criticizing them because it will only make you look unfavorable.
So make sure you have your facts straight so you remain credible.
It’s often best to avoid referring to the competition altogether so you can keep the focus away from them and squarely on your business and how you can help.
Adding value at every step when dealing with prospects can often neutralize a competitor’s proposal.
How Your Competition Is Helping You
Your competition is helping you, and they don’t even know it.
Perhaps you’re thinking, “What do you mean they’re helping me?
They’re trying to put me out of business!” Well, here’s some good news.
Your competitors post information on their websites about their history, products, services, terms, and conditions, delivering information, prices packages, frequently asked questions, and sometimes even their suppliers or partners.
Your competitors are doing this to try to inform their customers. But this information is available to you as well.
Don’t Use Price to Differentiate
Salespeople everywhere are leading with ‘I give the biggest discounts, I have the lowest price, I will give you a good deal’. They deal at these prices because they don’t know how else to differentiate from the competition. But no one will buy something no matter how cheap it is if they don’t think it will work, it’ll still be a waste of their money.
So how should you be differentiating from the competition? Start with the markets and customers you serve. How effective is your product or service, and what are the results?
Look at the market as our customers have enjoyed. I know some of you will ask, but what if I’m just starting out? Then focus on the service you’ll provide. The extra value you’ll be bringing and focus on your personal strengths.
Guys, there are so many ways to differentiate from the competition; just please don’t start with the price. In the words of Seth Godin, “The reason it seems that price is all your customers care about is that you haven’t given them anything else to care about.” I hope you’ll start giving them something else to care about.
In a world where buyers are inundated with choices, how can you stand out from other solution providers and shape buyer decision criteria without using price to differentiate? It all comes down to positioning. While there’s no right or wrong answer, you must pick at least one differentiator to stand out from your competition. In SOCO Academy, you’ll learn how to position yourself and determine how you’re different or better than the competition.
Don’t Get the Skills to Stand Out; Get Your Team The Skills to Dominate
Let’s be honest – many others are doing the same thing as you, all competing for the same customers. It can be tough to stand out from the crowd. So why not take advantage of our Differentiation Dominance e-learning course or live training program?
In this training, we’ll help you define a differentiator that matters to your target buyers. Ultimately, if your differentiator isn’t important to prospects, you’ll be stuck competing solely on price.
Start learning to position yourself, your company, and your offering as the ideal customer solution. Build a true competitive advantage that goes beyond just pricing.
