The other day I spoke at a business luncheon for sales professionals. My presentation was on maximizing your uniqueness. It was a great luncheon and I had a lot of fun with the group.
One of my key points was centered on the thought of what is it that makes you stand out in a very busy and competitive market.
What makes you different?
What makes people want to do business with you vs. the other guy?
What is that one thing that you do really well?
Here’s my opinion. It doesn’t take much to figure out that the world is changing and along with that change has come a shift in values, morality and just plain ole common courtesy.
Value has dropped in customer service.
Value has dropped in employee performance.
Value has dropped in the way people treat each other.
The reason my family shops at our favorite grocery store vs. the one across the street has nothing to do with one store having better food than the other. However, it does have everything to do with the way the employees treat my family and make us feel. The store across the street made us feel as if we inconvenienced them by walking into their store. The store we shop at makes us feel like they’ve been waiting on us to come back every time we go there.
Here’s my advice. If you want to stand out, it’s not as hard as you might think it is.
- TREAT people with kindness and respect. Relationships are your greatest asset.
- SHOW up on time. If you just do this, you will beat most of your competition.
- DO what you said you would do. Integrity never gets overlooked.
- VALUE your employees. We live in a world where most employees feel under valued and under paid. People leave bosses not companies.
So sometimes standing out and being different simply means going back to the way we used to do things a long time ago.