Why the Best Need to
Dominate Their Markets

Go to any city in the world, and you'll find a lot of distributors who are all doing a lot of the same things. They are selling the same products from the same suppliers, and in many cases they are doing it in exactly the same ways.

For that reason, it becomes difficult for them to compete. If I, as a customer, feel like I can go to any of you and get what I need, then none of you become special to me, and it's going to be very difficult for any of you to dominate your market.

Now, when I talk about dominating a market, what I really mean is that the people in your market are aware of you. They know who you are, they know what you do, and they can make a decision about whether or not they want to do business with you. If you talk about category killers, Amazon.com right now has a reputation for market domination. What that means is you know about them, you know whether you want to do business with them or whether you don't. So when I talk about this, that's what I'm referring to. Creating an environment in which the people you're looking to impact know who you are well enough to be able to make a decision, thumbs up or thumbs down on whether or not they want to do business with you. Then as long as you're doing a decent job, chances are they will want to do business with you. That's the goal of what we're looking to do here.

So let me ask you this:

In a market like ours, where we're all selling the same products from the same companies, is it possible to differentiate yourself?

Who here says yes? Who here says either no or it's gonna be really tough? Okay, it's a valid concern. It's very difficult to differentiate ourselves if we're going based only on the products we sell. But the products we sell are not ultimately going to determine who becomes our best clients. It will determine whether or not somebody can buy from us, because if they don't need our products, they're not going to buy from us. But beyond that, it's who we are as individuals, it's who we are as people, how well we're able to relate to them, how well we're able to determine what their needs are, and how well we're going to be able to respond to those needs and deliver what they want. So that's where we need to focus our differentiation efforts.

Let me ask you this, is it really possible to dominate your market? Who thinks it is possible to dominate your market? "Yeah, I can do it." Who here thinks either no or that is just really not very likely. Okay. Couple of hands going up.

It's a great point, because if you don't believe that you can do it to any extent, then you won't even try. You won't take actions that will be designed to allow you to do it.

So what I would encourage you to do is to suspend your disbelief and just think of it in terms of, okay, what if it were possible? Would I be willing to take the actions that could potentially help me to make more of an impact, "a dent in the universe" as Steve Jobs once said? We want to create our own little dent in the universe and as we'll be talking about here today, we get to decide what our universe is, so that's going to have an impact as well.

Who here thinks it's at least necessary to try to dominate your market? Yeah, I think so too, because why not? You're there anyway! You're going to be talking to prospects and clients anyway. You're going to be selling the products that you sell anyway. Why not at least try to be a dominant force in your marketplace? So let's just assume that it's at least necessary to try, or that you wouldn't even be sitting here if you didn't think it were necessary to try, to some extent.

So let's look at how to do this.

If you want to become a recognized force in your marketplace, what does it take?

Well, I would recommend you start by choosing your market proactively: Deciding what types of clients do I want to have and what types of clients do I want to leave to my unworthy competitors?

That's the question to ask. It's not a diss on your competitors, it's just the fact that if you don't feel like you are better at this than your competitors, you really need to get to the point where you have that belief in yourself, that faith in yourself, that you at least have your clients' and your prospects' best interest at heart.

If you know you care about people and you want to do what's best for them, that by itself is a huge advantage. I did a session a number of years ago, "Selling for the Non-Salesperson." That's what it was called. Who here likes the idea of helping people, but you don't really like the idea of being considered a salesperson? Raise your hand -- just don't feel comfortable with the title.

Okay, let me tell you, don't feel bad about that, because many of the people who don't like the idea of being a salesperson are actually some of the best salespeople. Because they care about people to the point where they're like, "Oh, I don't want them to think I'm a salesperson!"

Being a salesperson is not a bad thing when you have their interest at heart.

If you're just looking to sell them stuff they don't need, don't want, can't afford or won't be able to use, then you shouldn't be there to begin with.

But if you're there to help them solve problems and fix issues that have been causing problems in their business for a while and you're there to help them, then that's really all it is. So even if you don't really consider yourself to be a quote unquote "salesperson," just know that if you're there to really help them, and you arm yourself with the information that allows you to do that, you become a lot more valuable to them than those who may consider themselves salespeople, but who might not have their clients' best interest at heart.