Does It Serve Your Customer When You Vigorously Compete?

Absolutely!!!!! Competing vigorously and respectfully is one of the highest values you can offer your customers and clients. You owe it to them to honestly share what set’s your company, products, and service apart. What is it that makes you unique? In fact, sharing anything less than that is down right disrespectful.

Competition is often what drives improved service in the marketplace. You add something great and then your competitor adds something great. Everybody wins. Your customer gets a better product or service and you are driven to provide a better product or service.

One of my fears in adopting the “Servant Selling” Brand was that it would be viewed as wimpy or somehow weak. Nothing could be further from the truth. The Servant Salesperson paradoxically combines great sensitivity with great boldness. And part of that boldness is unabashedly communicating your uniqueness in the marketplace.

Servant Selling should even move beyond communicating uniqueness into creating uniqueness. This may happen at a couple of different levels. The first level is creating uniqueness in how you conduct your part of the business. It may be as simple as giving out your cell number, home number, or securing a blackberry so a customer who prefers to communicate through email can reach you 24/7. It may mean building or assembling presentation tools that allow you to communicate your companies strengths more clearly. The ways you can personally offer better service from the sales position are almost endless.

The second way a sales professional can move into the realm of creating competitive uniqueness is by partnering with others in the organization. Over time you can develop tremendous influence in how your product or service is designed. This design shaping may include aesthetics or functional elements that will in the end better serve your customers or clients. It may be as simple as making sure both the positive and negative customer feedback you receive, get to the people who can stay the course or make needed changes.

This week we are going to look at competing in the marketplace from a Servant Selling perspective. Watch the following YouTube sequence of the Apple Computer ads. Apple has creatively put together what comedians call a "running gag" that is designed to showcase it's uniqueness in comparison to a pc. Allow the ad to help you think deeper about your own company's uniqueness in your market niche. Make lists of what sets you apart from your competitors. Think about how you comunicate those things that set you apart. Write down any ideas that might help you communicate more clearly or concisely. Then think about things you could do to better serve your customer and set your company apart. Write that down. And finally, think about things that your company could be doing differently that would better serve the customer and create great competitive advantage. Write that down.

We'll continue our discussion tomorrow...