Hey, 👋 Scott from The Sales Mastermind here.

Today’s edition only takes 3 minutes.

Before you make a sale, the buyer has to decide to buy from you.

So give them a reason to choose you over the alternatives.

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Today, we'll cover:

• Onsite Chat
• The Basics
• Unsustainable Differentiation
• Examples of Sustainable Differentiation
• Find Yours

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Onsite Chat

A client provides onsite chat for professional services websites. They're the only provider in their vertical using humans over AI.

And they're going gangbusters. High double-digit CAGR for as long as I have known them.

By not following the AI trend, my client has sustainable differentiation.

But because humans are more expensive than AI, they lose deals to cheaper competitors.

This is one of the lessons of differentiation. It's not a silver bullet. You will still lose some deals.

Yet my client sticks to their differentiator. During the buying journey, they prove their product is of higher quality with case studies or live A/B tests against any competitor, which is another differentiator unique to them.

Overall revenue is higher because their customers are willing to pay a premium for a proven product.

So, all marketing, sales presentations, and even employee email signatures mention humans over AI.

None of their competitors try to come after this differentiation because it's complex and expensive and will cost them a deal or two. Often, the competitors play up the cost-saving angle of AI and play right into my client's hand.

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Basics of Differentiation

To make a sale over a competitor, your buyers have to believe your solution:

• Does what you say it can
• Will solve their pain outright
• Will solve their pain faster, better, high value, and more effectively than the alternatives

Remember, differentiation is in the eye of the buyer. It's about choosing who to be the best for, in what way, and accepting that only a subset of your buyers will care about your differentiation.

The ones who do care will care so much that they pay a premium.

For example, the smartphone market is divided into Android and Apple.

If cost is a buyer's #1 concern, they buy Android. If buyers focus on usability, fitting in, or staying with what they know, they buy Apple. Even though Android phones average ~$286, while Apple phones start at $799, Apple buyers willingly pay the premium.

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Unsustainable Differentiation

When differentiating, a common mistake I see is sellers picking ideas that can't be disproven in a buying process, areas that aren't unique, or flowery language that doesn't mean anything.

A current client is redoing their differentiation because the old positioning was "We Care." Which fails on all three criteria: it can't be disproven during the sale, isn't unique, and doesn't mean anything.

Examples of unsustainable differentiation include:

• Pricing - there is also someone cheaper.
• A single feature or single offering - your competitors can simply incorporate this feature or offering.
• Support/Onboarding/Customer experience - while potentially valid, a customer can only prove or disprove this idea after they buy.

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Examples of Sustainable Differentiation

There are always examples of breaking the rules.

For example, most of the above examples might be differentiators if your team can prove them during the sales cycle. See the example from The Office US here.

Some other common areas to differentiate:

• Pricing Structure or Terms - Do you offer your clients more flexibility or adaptability? For example, you provide monthly payments when all competitors demand annually.
• Partnership Distribution - Are you leveraging the trust others have built with your ideal clients? For example, bring a preferred supplier for a known industry influencer or community.
• Marketing Distribution - Do you have a unique way to find your ideal clients when they don't know the alternatives? For example, speaking slots at conferences or being early to the next TikTok.
• Product Focus - are you selling an all-in-one, point, or vertically-specific solution? For example, Salesforce is the all-in-one CRM, Clay is a point solution for enrichment, and Veeva focuses on the Life Sciences vertical.

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Find Yours

• List the five most common alternatives. List direct competitors and alternative uses for the budget. Some alternatives for my sales training are other trainers, marketing agencies selling lead generation, or recruiters selling new sales staff.
• List three-plus areas, per alternative, where your buyers see you as both better AND different.
• Validate your list by testing one idea per sales call for the next month. Use questions like "If I told you we do XXX, does that matter to you?" or "Is XXX important to you?"
• Refine your list to two to three alternative agnostic differentiators and at least one specific differentiator per alternative.
• Finally, start marketing your differentiation.

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What is one of your sustainable differentiators?

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Until next week,
Scott Cowley

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