Every day you are selling yourself, you products, your business.

You make sales calls, you network, you submit proposals, you have meetings with prospects and clients.

And, the objective to it all is to close more deals and increase the business.

It is not getting any easier. In fact, most people will say it is harder than ever to sell in almost every industry.

The power has shifted from the buyer to the seller.

This has made the job of selling less effective, take longer, and often more confusing.

Various selling methods have emerged – although, in reality, they have always been there. Now, they are named, and they have books written about them and trainers telling you how to do them.

So, at the end of the day, how can you actually do a better job? You need to find a way to set yourself apart from your competitors.

I was talking to a colleague on LinkedIn, and she has had great luck with a very simple tactic.

Working in the automotive industry, she works with the sales teams to incorporate basic follow-up as a technique to increase sales and customer retention. She has seen results greater than 10% with this simple additional tactic. She is now improving it by adding different types of follow-up calls for different customer personas.

It is often the little things, when done consistently that separates you from the others.

Read a section of that last statement again – ‘the little things, when done consistently.’

Too many sales organizations struggle with consistency. They may come up with tactics that are excellent and that endears them to their customers, but they do not continue with these tactics.

Here are three things you can implement into your sales organization that will make you stand out from your competitors. You do not need to do all of them. Simply pick the one you feel is best for your organization, and find a way to implement it successfully and consistently. That alone will help you stand out.

1: CREATE ENGAGING CONTENT, AND DELIVER IT ACROSS THE DIGITAL OCEAN.

This content can even be advertising as long as it is high quality and engaging. It could be reports and white papers. It could be articles. It could be graphical images and pictures. It could be a video or even cartoons and comics. Come up with a key way you want to express yourself, get your message across, and then create content. Finally, you must get that content out beyond your own borders. Yes, it must be on your website, but it has to spread beyond that. Get it out on social media platforms that suit your market. Get it out in online magazines related to your industry or online news sources. Even cross over, and get it out in various print formats, radio, or television.

Whatever strategy you choose, whether the ones listed here or some other strategy you come up on your own, make it yours, create a system to get it done on a regular basis, and do it consistently. This consistency alone will help set you apart from your competitors.

2: SEND OUT A HIGH QUALITY NEWSLETTER ON A REGULAR BASIS.

This is not a sales letter. It is not a flyer full of offers. This is a way to communicate to your customers and prospects to build relationships, to teach them, and to build trust and credibility. Done consistently, this is one of the most effective methods to set yourself apart from your competitors.

3: SEND YOUR CLIENTS AND PROSPECTS REGULAR GREETINGS ON THEIR BIRTHDAYS AND ON KEY HOLIDAYS.

Do this consistently, make it fun, and make it heartfelt when you can. Many organizations try this. They send out birthday cards or email greetings at Christmas, they spend their promotion budget on cards and gifts, but very few do it all the time, year round, year after year. And even fewer do it for all their prospects and clients. If you are the one who does it right, and consistently, you will be different than your competitors.

By Jack Zenert
VP Sales & Marketing
Beacon News