What's the difference?

Recently I was asked by a friend and colleague “what’s the difference between you and all the other ‘trainers’ I have wasted my money on in the past?”  I thought the question, while directed rather harshly, was a great question.  Frankly speaking it is not a question I haven’t heard before.  The training industry is filled with well intentioned men and woman who are trying to help and add to their clients repertoire.  Men and women who desire to see the business world a better place.  The issue is the business world has changed.  The marketplace is not looking for the same thing they have heard before.  They are looking for something different.  They are not looking for what worked 5 years ago they are looking for what works now.  They are looking for inspiration.

Our buyers are looking for inspiration as well.  Buyers rarely buy features.  They rarely buy what something does.  If buyers are forced to buy on feature alone they look for the cheapest way to obtain the feature and without the proper training we chase after their price concessions in the hopes of the deal rather than the lasting loyal relationship.  Buyers often don’t buy benefits alone either.  How many of us have the greatest product in the world with the greatest benefits ever and buyers still only concern themselves with price?  

Here’s the thing - in the new economy buyers don’t buy what you do they buy why you do it.  They buy inspiration.

Science proves what we know to be true through our own experiences.  The part of our brain which is responsible for reason and logic also controls speech.  A sales process focused solely on feature and price completely misses the point and costs us deals and dollars.  If we only engage the neocortex we miss the entire limbic brain which controls decision making and emotion and has no capacity for language.  We call it our gut.  It has nothing to do with our stomachs.  We have all paid more for something because of a great experience, a loyal relationship, and gone out of our way - even inconvenienced ourselves to buy a certain thing at a certain place.  WHY?  Because is just felt right.  We were inspired.  As buyers we will happily pay more for inspiration or at the very least we will no longer be focused on the price because the price no longer matters.  We align ourselves with the product or service deep in places in our brains for which there is no language and therefore rationalize or justify the purchase with the parts of our brain which can.

In this new economy I choose to start with inspiration rather than the result I will create.  I start with why I believe what I do about excellence and why excellence is the differentiator in the marketplace rather than what you should do to do to sell an item.  What’s the difference?  Inspiration.