A company brought us in because they had a sales problem. At least, that’s what they thought they had.
Their sales numbers were trending in the wrong direction. In my first hour with them, I heard three of their four salespeople say some version of: “We’ve got too much competition. They’re bigger than us/have more salespeople/can offer better incentives. We can’t compete.”
That’s exactly why I was there. The leadership team wanted to know what needed to change. Messaging? Sales process? Product positioning? Training? Pricing? Everyone had a theory.
But there was one interesting exception. One salesperson was doing exceptionally well. Same company. Same products. Same market. Same competitors. While others struggled, he kept winning business. Whenever we work with a company in that situation, that’s where I look first: before deciding what is broken, find the thing that isn’t. So I jumped into his Chevy beside him because I wanted to see what happened when he stood across from a customer. Not what the company thought its salespeople did, but what this person was actually doing differently.
I found it almost as soon as we got to the first farmer customer’s field.
My new sales friend’s conversation with his customer included some talk about products, performance, price and availability. BUT the salesperson kept asking questions: What happened last year? What was changing in the customer’s business model? Where was the customer uncertain, frustrated or struggling? What was he worried about getting wrong? Our sales star knew the products extremely well, but wasn’t interested in talking about them until he understood the customer’s situation.
Then something even more notable happened. The customer was leaning toward an option that would have meant a larger sale for our client. In two short sentences, the salesperson talked him out of it. He explained why another option better suited what the customer was trying to accomplish, even though it meant less revenue for his company.
The customer looked at me and said, “And that’s why I ONLY deal with him.”
There it was. This salesperson intuitively understood something many of the most successful companies I work with in the seed sector leverage: a competitive advantage. In his case, it was relationship, service and, ultimately, trust. He wasn’t winning because he was better at selling the product. He was winning because the customer trusted him to help make the right decision.
How many times have we seen sales people get put out in the field with an expensive truck, a cell phone and a product guide after getting some product training and access to a CRM (that inevitably was not maintained previously). We expect them to have a sales process and to follow it rigorously, but if they don’t have one, how will they ever succeed?
Competitive advantage can take many forms. A company can win because it has unmatched local knowledge, a unique distribution model, proprietary genetics, faster access to new technology, exceptional production capabilities or an ability to solve a particular problem better than anyone else. The important thing is knowing what yours is. That’s a distinction I see companies miss all the time.
A farmer buys corn seed because a farmer wants to grow corn. That is the reason for the purchase. It is not, however, the most important reason the farmer buys from you.
Companies routinely confuse the reason customers need their category with the reason customers choose to buy from them. Seed companies talk about seed. Accounting firms talk about accuracy. Software companies talk about efficiency. All of it may be true. None of it answers the question that matters most: Why you?
If your answer to “Why should customers choose us?” could be used by every competitor, you have a description of your industry, but you do not have a differentiator.
It goes without saying that your core offering must perform. But, while quality and reliability earn a customer’s consideration, they do not necessarily earn the sale. In fact, we consistently see that the actual reason a customer chooses a specific vendor over another may represent only a fraction of the total value you provide. Yet when several companies offer good products, that fraction can become decisive.
So, stop asking: “Why do customers need what we sell?” The much more useful question is: “Once they decide to buy a product from the marketplace we compete in, what makes them specifically choose us?”
Here’s perhaps the most notable tip. Often, a company barely notices its advantage because it is simply how its best people work. The challenge is recognizing why it works, determining whether customers truly value it and making it intentional and repeatable. Once discovered, that difference must shape the business. A difference claimed in advertising is positioning. A difference reinforced through hiring, training, investment and daily decisions is strategy.
Your core offering gives customers a reason to enter the market. Your competitive advantage gives them a reason to choose you. Do you know yours?
