I learned a valuable business lesson from my daughter when she was 22 months old. We were reading a book about animals and one particular page had 18 white ducks and one yellow duck. Every time we turned to that page, she would exclaim Yellow duck. That was clearly her favorite duck.
How does that translate to solid business advice? If you want to be noticed, like the yellow duck, you have to be different. Each of the other 18 ducks thinks it is different. When greeting other ducks, each one proudly states I swim, quack and waddle. They all sound the same. But, another duck says, I am the one and only yellow duck. Which one will most likely be remembered?
My daughter reminded me of basic psychology...DIFFERENT gets your attention and DIFFERENT gets remembered.
Everyone you see falls into one of two categories...either you remember them or you do not. Whether it is a passing face in a crowd or an acquaintance at a party that is easily forgotten, sometimes people do not stick in your mind. The reason for that is simple. Nothing about their appearance, what they did, or what they said triggered your mind to remember them.
If you are the one being forgotten, your business is going to experience some serious challenges. It is not too challenging to determine the results when you are often confused with your competitors, or even worse, immediately forgotten.
Obviously, it is important that you be remembered. On the other hand, being different and remembered is not always good. There are people I remember for unflattering reasons, such as an obnoxious voice, eye catching physical trait, or horrible fashion sense. Prior to my makeover by the Mrs. I might have been in that last category. The point is this...just being remembered is not the objective. You want to be remembered in a positive manner.
In the business world, I have heard people introduce themselves and say, I sell life insurance, or I do the same thing as other real estate agents. Is either of those likely to amaze people, engage people, or generate referrals? No. At one meeting an accountant said I know how to complete a tax return properly. A couple minutes later, another accountant said I know how to increase your tax refund by $3,000. So which one is different? Which one will be remembered?
Upon your first introduction to someone, make it different. Make it memorable. In order to boost referrals and gain new business, you must make people remember you. To do that, you must be different than your competitors. It doesn t matter if you do the exact same thing as your competitors. It doesn t even matter if they re better at it than you are! You can still be more successful than them if you make yourself stand out. Those two accountants may have the exact same knowledge and skills. The first accountant may even be better than the second. However, the second accountant uses a description that is both different and memorable. This leads to more business.
I realize differentiating yourself is easier said than done. You must assess your business, your skills, and your knowledge and determine how you can differentiate yourself from your competition. I ll address HOW to accomplish that at another time.
In the business world, you cannot afford to be a white duck just like everybody else. You cannot afford to blend in with your competition. You must find at least one trait that can differentiate you from the flock. If you want to be remembered, make sure your ducks are in a row by showing people how you re different.
Author Resource:
Steve Lawson is the Principal of Steve Lawson Consulting and the Founder of The Prospection Network. Since the early 1990s, he has been training independent professionals to grow their business while spending little to no money on marketing. http://www.ProspectionNetwork.com
![[Valid RSS feed]](http://www.look4articles.com/images/icon_Rss.png "XML Feed For RSS"){kind=icon}
Category Rss Feed
Print This Article
Add To Favorites
![[Valid RSS feed]](http://www.look4articles.com/images/rss.jpg "XML Feed For RSS")