Virtually every business you contact has this question in their mind. To truly maximize your revenues you need give people a reason to buy from you versus a competitor. Here are a few strategies that will help you differentiate yourself from your competition.

First, its important to understand that people make their buying decision on two levels logical and emotional. The logical aspect revolves around the product or service and includes such things as product specifications, warranty, price, colour, size, ease of use, etc. Anything directly associated with the product is a logical need. The second buying motivator and, perhaps the most powerful, is the emotional aspect of the sale. These criteria are the less tangible needs and include feelings of success, relief, pride, joy, fear and concern. For example, a person buying a pair of jeans will have specific logical needs such as waist size, inseam length, colour and style. But, ultimately, the emotional aspect of how they fit and look will influence that persons buying decision.

To uncover your customers emotional buying requirement learn to ask, What are you looking for in a? followed by Why is that important to you? The first question helps you learn the logical need while the second question will help the customer express the emotional reasons behind their purchase. In the hundreds of sales training workshops Ive conducted, Ive learned that most salespeople and business owners have a tendency to leap into a product demonstration before they have learned what is important to the customer. Invest the time accurately and thoroughly learning your customers need and wants. This will help you to begin differentiating yourself from your competitor.

The next step is to give a presentation that focuses on the customers needs. Rather than discuss everything about your product or service, focus first on what the customer identified as being important. This demonstrates that you listened to what they said and will help you separate yourself more effectively.

When presenting your product or service ensure you discuss the benefits as well as the features. The feature is what it is and the benefit is what it means to the customer. A great way to phrase this is to say, Our equipment extracts 97% of the water from your carpet (feature) which means your carpets will be dry to the touch within three or four hours (benefit). This addresses the customers emotional buying needs which means there is a greater likelihood they will buy from your versus a competitor.

People also make buying decisions based on their overall experience in your store or place of business. Here are just three influencing factors:

1. Ease of business. Are you easy to do business with or do I, as a customer, have to jump through hoops to return something? Are you well staffed or do you reduce your costs by scheduling a skeleton staff at any given time?

2. Staff accessibility and attitude. Is your team friendly and well trained in customer services procedures? Do they exhibit the mentality that the customer is important and comes first or do they spend their time gossiping and gabbing? Do they eagerly approach the customer or do they wait for customers to come up to them first. I recently bought an aquarium and although the staff was knowledgeable they made me feel like I was intruding on their time.

3. Product selection and availability. Do you have a good supply chain management or order fulfillment process in place. Prior to buying my aquarium I placed my order at one store and at the time of writing this article almost six weeks later I still havent been advised that my tank has arrived. And this was a stock order!

Lastly, equip your team with the tools they need to properly do their job. Take advantage of the product training most manufacturers provide, invest in the on-going development of your people, and help them succeed. Ive worked with companies who invest a great deal in their employees and others who spend a bare minimum. The difference in their overall results is always significant.

Todays business environment is more challenging and competitive than ever before which means you need to give people a clear reason to do business with you rather than someone else.

Copyright 2003 Kelley Robertson. All rights reserved