Presentation.

Attention to detail.

Serving the customer.

I was at my daughter’s soccer game this morning and one of the other parents had recently purchased furniture for their daughter and although they liked the product, the overall experience was very bad.  What was promised in no later than 8 weeks delivery took over 10 weeks.  When they did deliver, they left out a mirror…it had been ordered and paid for, but didn’t get shipped and they made the family jump through hoops to finally get it done right!  On top of that, the store and the installers all acted like this was business as usual and didn’t offer a single apology!

But here’s the really sad and frustrating part… 

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   photo by ellasdad

There are times when you need to play a different game.  When the current playing field is too crowded, too much of a commodity or just not a great place to be, you need to change the rules.  When you’re vulnerable to changes and competition…you need to play a different game.

I’ve been enjoying some great discussions in a Competitive Advantage training  course I’m taking from Sean Stormes.  Sean has a really interesting perspective as a life long sales guy, sales manager, sales trainer, etc.  Companies are approaching him to get help with sales training…and he’s telling them that sales training likely isn’t their issue – they need to be playing a different game.  They need a competitive advantage.

It doesn’t matter how good a salesman you are if you aren’t selling a product or service that’s different than the competition in a meaningful way (meaningful according to your customers in case you were wondering).  If the perception from the customer is that you’re basically the same as your competition…all you have left to compete on is price (and that’s a bad place to be).

The good news is that there’s an alternative.

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