THE KEY QUESTION

Imagine if a very important prospective customer were to ask you, ''What is it about your product or service that is different, better, and superior to any other similar product or service offered by any other company in today's market?'' How would you answer? If you had to explain how and why your product or service is superior to that of your competitors, what would you say? 

       Many salespeople, and even business owners, are not sure about the answer to this question. But you must be absolutely clear about your competitive advantage if you want to make more sales in an increasingly competitive market. 

       As an individual, doing personal strategic planning for your own career, you must ask this question of yourself.What unique skills do you have that make you superior to anyone else offering to do the same job that you are doing? What skills would it be useful for you to have? If you are not currently excellent in your field, what steps do you need to take, beginning immediately, to get yourself to the point where you stand out from everyone else? 

>>Identify Your Ideal Customers 
The third strategic area in business is that of segmentation. This requires that you divide your markets and customers into segments. You do this by identifying those customers who can most benefit from your area of specialization and your competitive advantage within that area. 

       In segmentation, you identify your ideal customers.Who are they? Where are they? What do they have in common? What are their ages, incomes, education levels, backgrounds, positions, experiences, and so on? Today, more and more marketing is focused on niches and microniches. Sales and marketing are increasingly personal and individual, aimed at tightly defined groups of prospective customers with special qualities and characteristics.Who are your ideal customers? 


CONCENTRATE YOUR ENERGIES

The fourth strategic variable, perhaps the most important of all in sales and marketing, is the principle of concentration. This is your ability to focus all of your energies and resources on those specific customers or markets where you have the greatest chance of success in the shortest period of time. 

       Your ability to concentrate single-mindedly on your highestvalue opportunities will do more to increase your return on energy than any other factor. Concentration is a key success principle in every field. 


SUCCESS VERSUS FAILURE

Dun & Bradstreet has been tracking the results of successful and unsuccessful businesses for more than 50 years. Not long ago, it put all of its research on failed businesses into a computer. The data showed that businesses fail because of ''low sales.'' Businesses succeed because of ''high sales.'' Everything else is commentary. 

       As the president of your own company, engaged in personal strategic planning for your career, your job is to ensure the highest level of sales of your personal services that you can possibly achieve. This requires that you specialize, differentiate, segment, and concentrate. As the president of your own life and career, you must become absolutely excellent at doing one or two things that the market will pay the most for.You must then become continually better in those one or two areas. 


YOU ARE EXTRAORDINARY

The fact is that you are extraordinary.You are born with unique talents and abilities that make you completely different from all other human beings who have ever existed. The odds of there being two people just like you are more than 50 billion to one. In fact, it will never happen. 

       There is no one who has the unique and remarkable combination of experiences, ideas, thoughts, feelings, education, and imagination that you do.You have within you, right now, the ability to be, have, or do virtually anything you can imagine.You are very much like Michelangelo's block of marble, just lying there.You are like an incredible masterpiece just waiting to emerge. 

       Great success and happiness come when you identify your natural abilities, and then concentrate on developing along the lines of your inborn talents. It is almost as though you are engineered for success in a specific way, and if you can find the area for which you were specifically designed, you will achieve more in a few years than most people achieve in a lifetime. 


LEAVE NOTHING TO CHANCE

You leave nothing to chance.You don't hope for miracles or wish for a lucky break.You recognize that if it's to be, it's up to you.p 

       Since you know you are going to have to spend the rest of your life working at something, you decide in advance that you will do what you love to do.You will become everything you are capable of becoming by developing your unique talents and abilities, wherever they lead.You will work only at something you enjoy, with people you enjoy, doing work that makes a difference in the world. 

       You set high standards for yourself. You think positively and constructively about your career and your future. You recognize that anything that anyone else has done you can do as well. Once you have decided what it is you want to do, you throw your whole heart into doing it 

        ACTION EXERCISESE


What is it that you really love to do? What activity gives you your greatest feeling of importance? 
If you could be absolutely excellent at any one task or skill, what would it be? Set it as a goal and begin work on that skill immediately. 
What are the key result areas of your job? On a scale of 1 to 10, how good are you in each area? 
What one skill, if you developed and utilized it in an excellent fashion, would have the greatest positive impact on your life? 
What is your area of excellence, your unique selling proposition, and the very best thing you do in your work? 
If you could do only one thing all day long, what one task or activity would contribute the greatest value to your company and to your work? 
Identify your heart's desire, the one thing that you were put on this earth to do. If you could accomplish one great thing in your lifetime, what would it be?