But My Business Is Different Redux

Your business is different than other businesses. And your business is different than your competitor’s. You have different models. You have different value propositions. You do things differently.

But your business isn’t so different that the iron laws of sales don’t apply to it. Or to you.

Your business is different, but it isn’t so different that you don’t need to target your dream clients and actively pursue them. It isn’t so different that you don’t need to disqualify the prospects for whom you can’t do great work or who don’t appreciate the value you create. It isn’t different if different means that you don’t devote yourself to winning the right clients.

Your business is different, but it isn’t so different that you don’t have to prospect and open relationships. It isn’t so different that you can avoid doing the tired-and-true, battle-tested activities that open new opportunities. There is no business that is so different that it doesn’t need to acquire new opportunities and new clients.

Your business is different, no doubt. But it isn’t so different that you can expect to win a deal without doing the work it takes to win it. You can’t expect to win in the boardroom without having done the work to develop your dream client’s needs, to help them develop the right solution, and without the stakeholder relationships.

Be Different in a Way that Makes a Difference

There are some iron laws in sales and business. The law of cause and effect is one of them, and you can’t be different enough to avoid it. You will later reap what you sow; no sowing always means no reaping. It’s not worth the effort to be different in an attempt to avoid these iron laws. Instead, be different in a way that makes a difference.

Be different in your prospecting efforts by developing the most compelling value creating justification for a sales call in the business.

Be different by focusing so relentlessly on your dream clients, the clients for whom you can do breath-taking, earth-shattering, jaw-dropping results, that it is what you become know for.

Be different by doing such good work helping your clients through their buying process that they can’t possibly imagine developing their solutions with anyone else. Know them, and make sure they know you.

Be different by flawlessly executing once you have made the sale, owning and delivering the outcomes that you sold.

These are the differences that make a difference. Instead of avoiding iron laws, you make your differences meaningful by putting those laws to work for you.