Today’s episode kicks off the latest Sales Evangelist series: differentiating from your competitors! As we move into this series, it’s time you learn three easy ways you can stand out from the competition. (Best of all, the majority of sales reps aren’t doing these things.)  But why is differentiating critical? You have so many other salespeople to compete against.  When one person stands out from the other, they’re more likely to land the sale (even if your products do the exact same thing.) Be curious. Most salespeople go into a conversation and ask boilerplate questions. The problem? Everyone asks those questions, so you aren’t getting any more information than your competition.  Sales reps should come to the table with information that leads to better questions, which means finding the right intel. Not only what the prospect and their company are doing, but why they’re doing it.  Stay one step ahead. Determine how you can be one step ahead of the competition.  Have an agenda when you go into the meeting. Send a recap email once you’re finished. If a prospect sees those things, they’ll see the effort and understand that you want to make positive changes for their organization. Especially when you have a meeting with a business executive, they might have 15 meetings a day. Sending an agenda shows these business professionals that you mean business. Be creative. Think outside the box! Find ways you can do something other people simply don’t do. Find some way to personalize a message. Handwrite a note. Send a small gift. Just try to make yourself stand out, and the prospect will notice. And of course, a bonus tip: make them look good: Make the prospect look good, either internally or externally.  Maybe you write a nice post on LinkedIn talking about them, adding a quote they said to show you were paying attention.  Mention an article they published or were posted in, and share that with your audience. They’ll certainly appreciate the sentiment! Join Donald’s Facebook group, The Sales Evangelizers, to find a community of people to share, reflect, and grow with! This episode is brought to you in part by Skipio. Are you sick of crickets? As a salesperson, the pain of reaching out with phone calls or emails and not receiving a response is real. But all text messaging is not created equal. 85% of people prefer text over email and phone calls because they want to engage in a conversation, not listen to bots. Be more like people and start having conversations that end in the conversions you want. Try Skipio at www.Skipio.com. This course is brought to you in part by the TSE Sales Certified Training Program, designed to help new and struggling sellers master the fundamentals of sales and close more deals. Help elevate your sales game and sign up now to get the first two modules free! You can visit www.thesalesevangelist.com/closemoredeals or call (561) 570-5077 for more information. We value your opinion and always want to improve the quality of our show. Complete our two-minute survey here: thesalesevangelist.com/survey. We’d love for you to join us for our next episodes, tune in on Apple Podcast, Stitcher, and Spotify. You can also leave comments, suggestions, and ratings for each episode you listen to!  Read more about sales or listen to audiobooks on Audible and explore their huge online library. Register now to get a free book and a 30-day trial. Audio provided by Free SFX and Bensound. Other songs used in the episodes are as follows: The Organ Grinder written by Bradley Jay Hill, performed by Bright Seed, and Produced by Brightseed and Hill.