The Psychology of Selling: Increase Your Sales Faster and Easier Than You Ever Thought Possible pdfdrive com

2. Set Yourself Apart—Differentiate!
In differentiation, you determine what it is that makes your product superior
to your competitor’s. What special benefits does your product offer to your
customers that are not available anywhere else? In what areas are your products
better than 90 percent of similar goods or services on the market?
In many cases, if the product you are selling is available elsewhere, such as
with real estate or life insurance, the special differentiator that you bring to the

---

sales situation is your own unique personality. There is only one person like you
in the whole world. Most sales are made on the basis of the feeling that the
customer has about the salesperson, more than any other factor.
3. Sort Out Your Market—by Segmentation
The third part of strategic selling is segmentation. Once you have determined
your area of specialization, and what it is that differentiates your product from
your competitors’, your next goal is to determine exactly which customers can
most benefit from what you do better than anyone else. Who are they?
Where can you find more of this ideal type of person or organization for your
product? Think of running an ad for “perfect customers.” How would you
describe them?
4. Focus and Concentrate
The fourth part of strategic selling is concentration. This is perhaps the most
critical skill that you can develop for success in any area, especially selling. It is
your ability to set clear priorities and then to concentrate single-mindedly on
only those prospects who represent the very best potential as customers.
In some cases, one prospect may be worth one hundred times the value of
another prospect. The basic rule in selling is to always fish for whales, not
minnows. Remember, if you catch a thousand minnows, all you have is a
bucketful of minnows. But if you catch one whale, it can sink your entire ship.
After a sales seminar in Tampa not long ago, a salesperson wrote to me and
told me that she had begun applying these techniques immediately. Within one
week, she closed a sale that represented 58 percent of her quota for the entire
year. She was absolutely astonished at what a difference it made when she
concentrated all of her energies on her largest potential customer.
What customers or markets could be capable of buying enormous quantities of
what you sell? Where are they, and how can you approach them?