As Bernadette Jiwa noted in her new book, “difference”, it’s becoming more and more difficult to be different. In a world that’s constantly on, 24/7, how do you stand out? Well as she put it so succinctly, it’s not about being different; it’s about making a difference. Making a difference to the lives of your customers. Here are ten actions that I’m executing in the businesses I’m scaling:

10 Key Actions

1. Observe the way in which customers use your product. Get on site; get online, whatever it takes to see them in action. This will bring you the insight you need to improve lives.
2. Frame sales conversations around real people, not companies. Your prospect is a person. How are you improving the life of the production director, the CFO, the HR manager etc.?
3. Ask them! Execute surveys to understand their worries, their experience, their wish list.
4. Diagnose their priorities. Don’t guess.
5. Look for symptoms that show specific parochial pain. Look for really specific issues that affect that prospect in that industry at this time.
6. Look for ways of helping your client to improve their client’s performance.
7. Frame marketing stories around outcomes that you can generate for customers. Case studies that allow clients to spell out the actual outcomes achieved are gold dust.
8. Give them tools to prove you can improve their lives. Nothing wrong with a simple ROI spreadsheet that they can play with.
9. Demonstrate the consequences of doing nothing.
10. Go beyond standard and create something that nails their issue. Something worth remarking on or remarkable if you prefer.