What Does AI Say About Being Commoditized?
3 Steps to Avoid Being Commoditized
If you go to ChatGPT and enter “How to avoid being commoditized by customers,” here is something similar to what you will get as a response.
Avoiding commoditization by customers is essential for businesses to maintain their value and pricing power. Here are several strategies to help you avoid becoming a commodity:
Differentiate Your Product or Service:
- Focus on what makes your product or service unique and highlight these differentiators. This could be through superior quality, innovative features, unique design, or exceptional service.
Wonderful. That’s the “what” to do, but “how” do we do it?
It’s quite simple.
3 steps to differentiate and avoid commoditization
- Identify the Trigger Event: What is the problem that the customer is seeking to solve?For example, when a customer asks for a proposal, find out why they are asking for one. Peel back the onion; we’re looking for the root cause. What are they trying to fix, accomplish, or avoid?Don’t lead with your product or service; customers are only interested in what you have it if they believe it will solve their problem.
- Describe how you Solve the Trigger Event: What about your product, service, brand, or support uniquely solves the trigger event?I often hear, “There is nothing we bring that is unique; we’re the same as our competitors.If this is true, which it is not, then you don’t need a sales team; just sell online.I worked with a customer who sold salt – NaCl, sodium chloride. It’s a commodity. They were great at differentiating from the competition – different size granules, colors, stocking options, and private branding. If they can do it, so can you.
- Identify the Results the decision influencers will be impacted by when you Solve the Trigger Event.When you solve their trigger event with your solution, results are produced.Share these results with your decision influencers. If the decision influencers believe these results will positively impact them, they will view your solution as differentiated.
Summary:
Identify the Trigger Event / how you uniquely Solve it / and the Results produced.
Once the customer understands how this impacts them, you’re differentiated.
TIP: Reduce the variation in the execution of your sales team by providing them with a list of the most common trigger events their customers face, how your company solves them, and the results produced; don’t leave it up to the individual salesperson to figure it out on their own.
About the author
David Varner is a speaker, author of the critically acclaimed book "The Sales Checklist...get it right every time," and founder of The Millau Group Global, a sales training company, focused on providing clients simple, easy to use sales tools that immediately produce measurable results.
Over the last 25 years, David has coached and trained hundreds of sales leaders and thousands of salespeople in companies such as Eaton, Honeywell, ThermoFisher Scientific, and DuPont to systematically close critical sales
Dave can be reached at dave@millaugroupglobal.com