The move from being just competitive…to compelling!

Two years ago I wrote a book called ‘the ultimate marketing challenge: to create & sell the 3^rd result’. In simple terms the key point was that you can sell to the market ‘the same proposition as most other suppliers offer’ (the 1^st result), or ‘a proposition that is slightly better’ (the 2^nd result)…or ‘a proposition that creates a much better result’ (the 3^rd result). My reason for mentioning this is that I spoke today with the CEO of a NZ company, and this lady has fully embraced the 3^rd result concept and created great sales success at her previous company (she took up her current position only a few months ago, and I am speaking at her company’s conference in Auckland later next week). She now wishes to introduce the 3^rd result idea to the franchisees that make up her company’s key sales force, and I was intrigued to hear what she had to say about how she sold the 3^rd result to her sales team at her former company.

First of all she somehow got the book and ‘studied it’, as opposed to reading it once or just scanning through it. She then resolved to have their organization operate by the 3^rd result edict, and so she arranged for her sales force to each have a copy of the book…and then as a team they moved forward to the point of being compelling and not just competitive. I find stories like that to be inspirational, to say the least, and in a personal sense it offers great satisfaction to me to learn of people or companies that actually ‘run’ with ideas I have recommended. In my own professional life I operate by a private pledge to be a 3^rd result speaker, trainer, consultant and writer, simply meaning two things:

·      Those I serve are positively ‘taken aback’ by the quality and value of ideas offered, as well as by the special ‘delivery’ of the ideas

·      My business and professional life is satisfying, interesting, demanding, creative and very successful…and well balanced with my private life

To operate at the 3^rd result merely involves a critical decision, supported by a vow to never slip into 2^nd or 1^st result levels. The decision in question is not about ‘beating’ other suppliers, for many so-called rivals can be defeated without much effort. Instead it concerns a promise to deliver the quality of results that customers need but rarely, if ever, ask for. As customers, we do not possess information about how the best results can be achieved with all the products and services we wish to buy. We are concerned about our own businesses, not the businesses of those who serve us…and so more often than not we experience average results when buying, because what we are sold is basically what we asked for!

Reaching the level of a 3^rd result company or sales person involves a focus on people, not customers…based on two simple and compelling facts: 1. All customers are buyers and all people are achievers, and 2. All customers are people!

So performing at the 3^rd result level does not involve ‘serving’ the customer better, it means ensuring that each customer, as a person, achieves the best possible result that we can create. Customers are buyers for less than 2% of their time, but as people they spend 98% of their time trying to figure out how to be successful…at whatever they do, and in this regard they need all the help they can get. Selling 3^rd result solutions does not involve simply working harder, it involves aiming to operate at higher levels that most suppliers don’t even think about…because what they think about is ‘giving customers what they want’. There is nothing wrong with giving customers what they want, along with nice service and reasonable prices…after all, most business transactions are based on this weak performance platform. However, to serve at the 3^rd result level the challenge is to rise above transacting to reach the point of transcending, or put another way…to make the business move from being competitive to compelling!