In Business - Set Yourself Apart from the Competition - Be Unique, Very Unique

In sales trainings we're always taught to sell the benefits our customer will receive based on the features of our products. Well, while on vacation in the summer resort area of Bar Harbor, Maine, I bought a hat for double the price of many other hats that had similar features providing similar benefits. Was I just a sucker, or was there something special that provided me with even more value than could be seen on the surface?

My wife and I were checking out some of the shops the first night of our visit and we walked into a store for outdoor sports enthusiasts looking for some kayaking accessories. While walking through the store I came across a display of hats that, on the surface, looked, like any other hat display, but I was looking for a hat other than a baseball cap that would provide more sun coverage, so I stopped to check 'em out. As I was trying them on, I looked inside the crown of the hat and saw a large label proclaiming -

TILLEY HAT

The Finest Hat in All the World Insured Against Loss,

A Lifetime Guarantee

That headline intrigued me, so I read further to the slightly finer print and learned that:
It floats, Ties On, Repels Rain, Blocks UV rays & won't shrinkComes with a security pocket, '8 Brag Tags, & a 4-page owners manualI delved deeper and looked into the secret security pocket in the crown and found the owners' manual, then I pulled out a water proof plastic bag that stored the 'Brag Tags.'

What is a Brag Tag, you might be asking? Well, they are a full sheet of 8 perforated testimonials on one side with referral information on the flip side. The sheet explains that Tilley Hats are so special, people are going to ask you where you got yours, and you "must be prepared."I immediately felt that by buying this hat, I'd be part of a special outdoor community, and felt I had to have one.

My wife thought I was nuts as the hat was not inexpensive, about $71 with tax. But, it was exactly what I needed for kayaking, I rationalized to her. I mean it had the wide brim that would block out the sun on all sides, it would keep me in shade, it had a partially mesh top to keep cool in the hot sun, etc. But, of course I could have gotten those features & benefits in another hat. It was the uniqueness of the marketing of the hat and the community Tilley was creating that made me feel special and unique if I were to have one of these remarkable hats.

So, what can you do to make your product so unique and different that people stand up and take notice? That, regardless of price, the value of that uniqueness will not just make the difference and allow people to buy your product, but will actually attract them towards you and your product, and want to be part of the special community you are creating.

Oh, and here is the rest of the Tilley Hat story - two days later my wife ended up buying her own Tilley Hat because after seeing me in it, "it grew on her." This is the first ever experience on record in which my wife has followed my lead in purchasing any type of fashion wear (and, it may very well be the last).

Want a Tilley hat of your own? Or, if you'd like to learn more, just go to http://www.tilley.com/

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Grow Your Business by Getting Away From It

In his book “If Aristotle Ran General Motors” Tom Morris defines “True Success” as “Doing what you love to do, doing it with whom you like doing it, & doing it when you want to do it!” I’m excited that I believe I’m finally on that path.

It’s the eve of my third vacation in the last 12 months. It will be five weeks in total, and that doesn't include the 4-day rest, relaxation and planning retreat I took last August, or the two weeks I took in the first six months of this year on other business related retreats.For the first 2 1/2 years of my business, I took virtually no time off. My business growth, and income from my business was slow to grow.

About 15 months ago I began a new two pronged approach to improving the growth of my business, and improving my personal life by -

1) taking time off, totally shutting down and getting completely away from anything business related (no business or personal development books or magazines, no laptop, no e-mail, no cell phone calls to check voice mail, etc.), and

2) physically getting out of my marketplace and going away on either a private business planning retreat, or a retreat with others in my profession for brainstorming and Masterminding.

My business revenue's will have grown approximately 100% in the last 15 months, and my net income from the business will have grown 130%. Can all of that business, sales revenue growth, and personal income be attributed to just taking time off? Certainly not.

It is also a result of consistently doing the right things to build a business for almost four years (October 1st will be my 4 year anniversary).

However, this is what taking that time off has done for the growth of my business and even more importantly for the growth of my personal life:

1) Provided me with a process for re-energizing my mind, body and spirit that has allowed me to return with a fresh outlook and approach to my business;

2) Provided me with unstoppable confidence in the direction of my business;

3) Provided me with a rewarding and fulfilling personal life which has deepened my relationship with my wife and family;

4) Allowed me to explore and experience things in this world that I was forever too busy to notice or even care about before (such as hiking in a Hawaiian volcano, kayaking on the Hudson River and Acadia National Park in Maine, reading American history biographies, and much more to come)5) Allowing me to create a balance between my business life and home life that is so much more healthy.

Am I where I want it to be yet? No, certainly not. But, I’m working towards it and realize that the key to creating the ideal balance between business life and home life will only come if the vacations and retreats continue. I've learned they provide the valuable fuel and focus to make it even better next year.

Try it for yourself, I guarantee your results will be similar.

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Stop Selling and Start Helping People Buy

Since I first entered the business world out of college 24 years ago (that's hard to write), I knew that success was all about sales. I probably realized that even earlier. I mean the interview process just to find a job out of college was a sales presentation and the product I was selling was myself.

I don't know if I was ever comfortable with the traditional sales approaches, which teach the consultative interview techniques to get to the prospects pain and then through presenting how the benefits of your product matches up with the pain they need to relieve.

Maybe it was because for the first 20 years of my sales career it quite frankly was tough to find the pain that I could solve for company through the company advertising in, or running a promotion with a minor league baseball team. We had to sell exposure, a captive audience, brand/name recognition and good will in their local community. Most of the sales minor league baseball teams make have more to do with creating a positive feeling for the company being involved in something good, wholesome and family oriented in their hometown. Our product was never top of the "must do" advertising budget, usually we were a secondary line item.

I mention this because I believe it set me up to sell from a totally different perspective when I launched my own business. Because for 20 years I had to focus more developing deep relationships with my customers of the baseball teams I worked for, I believe it allowed me to take a step back from the traditional dance in the selling process. I don't believe I ever had to spend much time overcoming the traditional objections most sales people face because, outside of a payment schedule discussion, there really were no objections to overcome. Businesses either saw involvement with their local professional baseball team as a positive, uplifting experience for their business, or they didn't.

Now that I run my own business coaching, consulting and training business called The Achievement Gym, I recently realized that I've had to "sell" very few people on becoming members of the program. Most of the discussions I've had have centered around those prospects "buying" the product that I have to offer.

All new members of The Achievement Gym this year have come back to me months, and in one case 2 years, after we had our initial discussion about joining my coaching program. In each of those cases the customer made the buying decision to buy my product. There was no selling involved on my part whatsoever.

My two biggest clients this year both came to me through referral sources, and it was a far gone conclusion that we were going to work together, and our discussion focused solely on the details of program, and the budget we could agree on. Again, those two clients made "buying decisions" to do business with me before we even had a discussion.

Has it always been this way? Certainly not. It did take me a good 2 1/2 years to create the reservoir of prospects, and referral sources while creating a pool of both present and former program members willing to provide referrals and testimonials that have provided a tremendous amount of credibility in my coaching programs.

It may not be the quick fix to building your business, but it is the long term and successful approach to building your business, and I recommend investing the time, energy and resources to do the same. If you do, I know you will begin attracting customers that will be making "buying decisions" to buy you and your product or service, before you ever speak with them and have "close" them, and I can tell you from experience that is a very powerful and rewarding place to be.

How do you this? Here are some steps:
1) Stop trying to "sell" everybody you meet and show genuine interest in the person you are speaking with as a person, not a prospect;
2) Create a system for staying in touch with people, and provide information of value to them
(create a newsletter, or newspaper clipping service to send articles of interest, etc.);
3) Provide outstanding service to your present customer base and create the expectation at the beginning of the relationship with any new prospect that if they like your product and service they will provide referrals
4) Always keep in mind that the word sell has its roots in Scandinavia, as the Scandinavia word "selzig" means "to serve."

Focus on serving your prospects and you will have more business than you'll ever need.

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Role Play to Refine Your Skills

While I was at the Town Planner Publishers' conference last weekend, I sat in on their sales workshop the afternoon prior to my workshop on Friday morning. It was a great program that took participants through the most common objections the publishers face in the sales process.

The facilitator focused on 13 key objections and a panel of experienced publishers shared their strategies for breaking through each. About 50 participants were in the audience and many were taking diligent notes.

As I was sitting there observing I realized something. This was the first day of the conference and it was a Thursday afternoon. The first opportunity most participants would have to practice the new approach to overcoming these standard objections would be the forthcoming Monday. By then, most participants would only have their notes to refer to when they got home. In the heat of the moment in a sales situation, I would venture to guess that most of the strategies for overcoming the objections that were put forth in Thursday afternoon's workshop would be long forgotten.

I realized that the best way to really integrate the strategy of overcoming common sales objections would be to do a significant amount of role playing with a partner who is familiar with the sales process and these objections, someone who could play "devil's advocate" and help you practice overcoming the objections.

Most people hate role playing exercises in workshops, but I believe it is imperative if you want to improve your sales skills, negotiating skills, speaking skills, etc. Find a partner, practice your sales script, or your basic approach to engaging a prospect in a sales conversation. Then, practice overcoming the common objections you may face.

The old adage here holds true, "practice makes perfect." Although "perfect" probably isn't the standard to shoot for because it's unrealistic, practice will yield results. And, as my yoga master says with regards to generating results from my yoga practice, steady practice brings results, more steady practice brings more results. The same goes for role playing in the sales process.

Find a partner and set time aside weekly to identify the situations and the objections that provide the biggest challenge and work through them in some role playing sessions. I can guarantee your sales success will explode within 90-days. Have fun with it and good luck!

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