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So youʼre resourceful and you can find nearly any product. Congratulations. So can Google. So you can deliver on time and within budget. Congratulations. So can about 25,000 other distributors out there. So you really care about your customers and you seriously want to help them. Good. Most of us do, too. What are you doing that is going to make you stand out?
What are you doing to earn from your clients not just loyalty, but enthusiastic evangelism on your behalf? How are you different? If youʼre not asking yourself this question every morning, youʼre going to be just another vendor. If your clients cannot see any difference between you and your competition, they will let price be the deciding factor in their decisions.
If there were a big promotional products trade show where distributors were the exhibitors and end-users were the buyer attendees, how would you stand out? Personally, I believe that this type of show does not exist for exactly that reason. In the days of the Yellow Pages, there were multiple advertisements with the same claims and the the same laundry list of products. If you compare distributor websites, most are using the same templates from the same providers with the same look, feel and value proposition.
One day, one of my coaching clients complained to me that he was walking through a client's office when he saw several boxes of promotional products from a well-known online distributor. He asked his client about them and why he hadnʼt been given an opportunity to quote on them. His client replied, “Oh, you know, I didnʼt think of you.” The distributor was hopping mad that his client hadnʼt thought of him. He thought of all of the on-time, on-budget work he had done in the past. I told him, “Itʼs not your clientsʼ job to remember you. Itʼs your job to be unforgettable.”
Being unforgettable means giving more. It means being more. Being on-time and on-budget and being able to find stuff is the cost of entry today. Being a valuable resource to your customers starts with the hard work of questioning everything, the hard work of reinvention, and the commitment to being remarkable. Be Different. Be Relevant.
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