Latest / The Action Catalyst / REMASTERED: Create Distinction, with Scott McKain (Sales, Customer Service, Author, Business)

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REMASTERED: Create Distinction, with Scott McKain (Sales, Customer Service, Author, Business) · The Action Catalyst

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  Host: Scott McKain is the country's leading expert on
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  creating business and professional distinction. So
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  what Scott really does as he help create more compelling
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  connections between you and your customers, helps you stand out
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  and move up in every phase of business, best selling author.
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  And he has a great book called Create distinction, what to do
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  when great isn't good enough to grow your business. So he's here
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  to talk to us today about creating distinction. Scott
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  McKain, thank you for being here, brother.
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  Scott McKain: Thank you so much for having me with you this
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  morning. I really appreciate it, man. Thank you.
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  Host: Talk to us, like, why did you kind of build this career
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  around that word? And why do you think that distinction is so
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  important in in business today?
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  Scott McKain: Great question. Yeah, you only heard so much
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  about differentiation, you know, we, we need to establish
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  differentiation between us than our competition, or what do we
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  do to differentiate ourselves from other people on the job so
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  that we get the promotion. And it occurred to me, you know, If
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  I slap every customer in the face, I'm different. That
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  doesn't mean to grow my business, right. So there had to
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  be something else. And as I looked at other industries, you
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  know, for example, you walk into a Best Buy store to buy a laptop
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  computer. Sony is differentiated, Samsung Dell are
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  differentiated from from the great math is like a third a
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  Seuss and gateway and Fujitsu. But Apple is truly distinctive.
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  And so what does it take not just to be different from your
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  competitor, but to be so distinctive, that you attract
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  people to do business with you. And that that's true, whether
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  you're an individual salesperson out there, or you know, making
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  calls and knocking on doors, or whether you're the CEO of a
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  small, mid or large size business, we all have to find
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  ways to answer this critical question. And that is, how can
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  my customers tell the difference between the competition?
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  Host: So what's the real difference between being
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  distinct and not just different?
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  Scott McKain: Well, there's a couple of ways in the in in the
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  book, I talk about the four cornerstones of distinction as
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  we examine distinctive organizations to the stinky
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  professionals. It was interesting that not only did
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  they have these four qualities, but they tended to do the floor
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  in a specific order, and in a similar order to one another.
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  But to answer that specific question about how can you tell,
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  I think it's the difference, the difference between pursuit and
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  attraction, a differentiated company or a company that's
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  trapped in that sea of sameness. Man, they have to be out there
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  hustling and knocking on doors and just tracking down at
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  hunting customers. He distinctive organization has a
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  plan of acquisition. So they're out there, you know, trying to
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  get new customers, but they are so compelling. Customers are
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  attracted to do business with them. You know, Apple does a lot
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  in the business world, there's a lot of businesses that have
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  Apple computers in the business, that Apple practically had the
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  zero size Salesforce for the business arena. And the reason
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  is, because those of us that like Apple go to work and got a
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  you know, gosh, we, instead of using the Blackberry, we wanted
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  to use our iPhones at work. Instead of using a typical
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  Windows machine, we want to use our Macbook Pro at work. Now,
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  Apple is an overused example. But we can find it whether it's
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  Enterprise rental car, because they bring the car to us. In the
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  Pacific Northwest Les Schwab tires, because they run out to
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  service. There are many, many examples of even small
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  businesses that do something incredibly distinctive to make a
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  difference. And it turns customers into advocates, we're
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  out there, I'm on the phone telling you that you've got to
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  do business at this place. Because they provide such a
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  compelling experience. If we put as much effort into making our
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  businesses distinctive, as we do and to track it down. And see,
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  this is where the price question comes into play as well. People
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  say, Well, you know, they're, they're loyal to me, because
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  I've got the cheapest price. Well, they're not loyal to you,
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  they're loyal to the price. The critically important aspect of
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  getting out of that cyclical nature of we've got to have the
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  cheapest try to get business. And then we erode our margins.
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  And then we're not a profitable organization, or a salesperson
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  on the road, blames the home office because they won't cut
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  the price instead of becoming a better salesperson. All of these
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  are challenges that we see every single day in businesses
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  everywhere.
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  Host: Now one of the things you mentioned earlier, the four
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  cornerstones of distinction. You know, the first one is clarity.
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  And I love this because you say in the book, that clarity means
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  being just as exact about who you are not, as it does with who
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  you really are. And yet there's this temptation to always say,
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  Well, yeah, I do that too. How do you in terms of creating
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  clarity? How do you most effectively determine who you
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  are not? Or what things you should say no to?
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  Scott McKain: It comes out of where are you willing to plant
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  your flag in the ground? That is what you stand for? What are my
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  new favorite television shows on the Food Network? It's called
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  restaurant impossible. The new Chef Robert Irvine news in save,
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  you know, the failing restaurant, and it occurred to
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  me that without fail, one of the things he does is take items off
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  the menu, because so many of these restaurants keep adding
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  items to think well if we Through Chinese dishes, then,
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  you know, we'll get some more customers there. And if we have
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  Italian dishes, we'll get some work through there. And if we do
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  that at the end of the day, then they appeal to no one, because
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  they don't have customers want clarity about what you are. And
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  so I would begin by taking a look at where are you going to
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  plant your flag in the ground, it doesn't mean that you can't
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  do other things. For example, you know, Papa John says better
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  ingredients, better pizza, but they still deliberate most
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  locations. But when you think of fast and quick delivery, you
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  tend to think of Domino's. So Domino's planted their flag in
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  the ground at delivery. And that's where the point of
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  emphasis is going to be. Papa John's has planted their flag of
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  the ground of having better ingredients that are better
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  pizza, so their flag is in the ground about a better case.
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  Well, even though these two businesses compete with each
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  other, we as customers have a pretty clear idea of when we
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  want a higher quality pizza, who we're going to call, or if we're
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  hungry, and we need it in 30 minutes, who we're going to call
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  and so that that's the key is letting your customers know
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  where your flag is in the ground and what you stand for. And then
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  it just in terms of prioritization, gosh, we just
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  don't have time to get it all done. Well, that's the problem.
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  You're trying to get it all done. I want to flag in the
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  ground and say, This is who we are. And this is what we're
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  clear about. And then spend your time emphasizing your clarity, I
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  get it, look, let's face it, customers, and employees too,
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  will never become loyal to a generic. I've never seen that
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  the grocery store or these white cans of beer on them. And I
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  don't know that anybody was loyal to beer that certain
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  people would pick up a Bud Light, or certain people pick up
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  a six pack of Coors or that oh, that kind of thing with all
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  buddies loyal, who is generic, you're loyal to something that's
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  specific, you're loyal to something, whether it's a person
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  that has your loyalty, or whether it's an organization by
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  how they treat you or what they do distinctively, that creates
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  loyalty. But you can't differentiate what you can't
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  define. I can't tell you how I'm better or, or different from my
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  competitor, unless I first defined it. But yet many of us
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  just keep doing our job. And we assume the customer is gonna
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  know. If product is one thing. What else do you sell? Well,
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  let's make a list of those things that you sell. And every
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  organization will say, Oh, we have great customer service. And
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  we have great relationships with our customers, we peace of mind,
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  and all of these things. Well, there's two critical points
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  about that. First of all, the things that they say they sell,
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  are absolutely identical to what the competitor.
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  Host: Scott, it's been such a great time with you. And we you
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  know, one last little question, I just wanted to make sure that
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  we we gave you a chance to speak on as I love how in this book,
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  you talk about creating distinction, not not only as a
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  successful like business principle, but also that it
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  applies to a person on an individual level.
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  Scott McKain: Real quickly, it's the four cornerstones is being
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  clear about what you are one of the things we you know, Zig
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  Ziglar used to talk about the people that are wandering
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  generalities, you know, that they never really focused on
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  anything or achieve anything. So it's being very clear about what
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  you want them, it's being creative in your approach,
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  finding a way to go at it in a unique and creative manner.
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  There's a three step plan in the book about how you how you
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  actually execute on creativity. The third is communication. And
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  what we find that in today's world of people want a
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  narrative. It's not that they don't want facts and figures and
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  information they do. But they want it placed within a
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  compelling narrative. So it's learning how to communicate,
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  it's learning how to tell a story. And then the fourth and
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  final one is a customer experience focus. So whether
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  we're talking about the external customers that an organization
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  serves, or the internal customers that you and I serve,
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  as we work inside our organization, we not only have
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  to look at how we deliver the the aspect of our job, but also
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  how it makes people feel, how are we connecting with them? How
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  are we growing relationships, our weak stimulating people that
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  are our advocates and our supporters? So if you follow
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  those four, as a professional, you're going to stand down as an
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  organization you're gonna stand out. And and I think that's part
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  of what we're looking for in today's world is what can I do
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  so that I can achieve my potential? What can I do so I
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  can get recognized for my effort. And if we do those
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  things, I think we're well on the pathway to creating
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  distinction.
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  Host: I love it. I love it folks. Clarity, creativity,
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  communication, customer experience, focus. Those are the
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  four cornerstones. Scott, thanks for being with us, brother.
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  Scott McKain: Thank you. You bet.