You Are Selling for Competitive Advantage

You aren’t just trying to compete for your dream client’s business; you’re trying to win their business. Everything you do, every sales interaction, needs to be designed to create a competitive advantage. You want a complete and total mismatch when your dream client evaluates you against your competitors (and against you most dangerous nemesis, the status quo).

Trust and Relationship

You want the competitive advantage of having the strongest relationship. Trust is the foundation of that relationship. Caring is, in part, the foundation of trust. As much talk is there is today about insights and ideas, you still want the competitive advantage of being known, liked, and trusted.

All things being equal, relationships win. All things being unequal, relationships still probably win. You seek to make all things unequal by developing the relationships you need to stack the deck in your favor.

Perception of Value

Your relationships allow you to spend time with your dream clients. That access gives you the ability to uncover and understand your dream client’s perception of value. If you have really strong relationships, you have the ability to help shape that perception of value.

Creating the greatest–and highest levels–of value is a massive wedge of a competitive advantage. You sell to create that value.

Ability to Execute

One of the ways you create a competitive mismatch is by selling in a way that proves you have the ability to execute. More than ever, your dream clients need to know that when they make the necessary investments that they’ll get the results that they paid for. They’re afraid of risk. They’re afraid of failing. They’re afraid of change.

You create a competitive advantage by providing proof and evidence of your ability to execute, be it through references, site visits, or implementation meetings. Execution isn’t just something you do after you sell; it’s part of what you sell to create a stacked deck.

Tilt the Playing Field

You are selling so that you can tilt the playing field in your direction. You want an absolute advantage over your competitors. You sell to make it easy for your dream client to say “yes” to you and “no” to your competitors. How well you sell determines whether or not you create a competitive advantage.

Questions

How does how you sell create a competitive advantage?

How much does relationships and trust count towards a real competitive advantage?

Do heavily does your dream client’s perception of value create a competitive advantage?

When is it right to focus on execution?