From Competing Better to Becoming Different
Over the past few days, I have been working with my two co-authors of Satisfaction Selling, Virpi Varjonen and Dr. Joseph Riggio, on a practical challenge brought to us by one of our Positive Activists.
He works inside an organization that has invested for many years in one of the classic sales methodologies. Like many professional B2B companies, they have built structure, discipline and a shared language around consultative, solution-oriented and value-based selling. In our language, we often describe these approaches as part of the broader family of Stretch Selling methodologies.
He wanted to introduce his colleagues to another possibility: the Personal Selling Program – PSP™, using the Satisfaction Selling method.
Not because their current approach is wrong. Not because their existing sales model has no value. But because he wanted them to understand that PSP is not simply another sales technique or a better questioning model. It represents a different way of working with customers, motivation, trust and commercial development.
So the central question became:
What is the real difference between becoming better at the sales game everyone else is playing and becoming meaningfully different in the eyes of the customer?
That is the question this article explores.
The foundation many organizations have already built
Many B2B organizations have invested heavily in sales capability over the last 10, 20 or even 30 years.
They have trained their people to understand the buying journey, identify needs, manage stakeholders, bring insight, develop opportunities and communicate value. These capabilities matter. They create structure, discipline and a more professional approach to customers.
That foundation should not be discarded. In fact, the Personal Selling Program – PSP™ builds on it.
The next step is not necessarily to add more tools, more scripts or more process layers. The next step is to shift the level at which the salesperson operates.
Instead of only asking, “How do we improve our sales process?” we begin to ask:
How does the customer experience us when we are in conversation with them?
Do they experience us as another professional supplier using a well-trained method? Or do they experience us as a different kind of partner?
This distinction matters commercially because a competitor can buy a similar process. They can train their salespeople in similar questions. They can use similar account plans, opportunity tools and stakeholder maps.
What is much harder to copy is the lived experience of working with an organization whose people consistently create a different quality of relationship, clarity and trust.
That is where differentiation moves from method to market position.
From better technique to a different customer experience
Well-trained sales teams increasingly sound alike.
They ask structured questions. They uncover needs. They identify problems. They present value. They map stakeholders. They seek commitment. Often, they do all of this professionally and with good intentions.
But over time, many customers begin to experience these conversations as familiar. One supplier asks consultative questions. Another supplier asks consultative questions. One supplier brings insight. Another supplier brings insight. One supplier presents value. Another supplier presents value.
The result is that several suppliers may be experienced as competent, professional and relevant, but still fundamentally comparable. And when customers experience suppliers as comparable, the decision often drifts back to price, risk, existing relationships, technical fit or internal politics.
The Personal Selling Program – PSP™ changes the basis of comparison by shifting the focus from technique to the quality of the relationship, trust and motivation the customer experiences.
The practical fit for complex B2B organizations
Many professional B2B organizations do not operate in simple transactional environments. Their value is tied to expertise, trust, advisory depth, risk reduction, long-term relationships and the ability to help customers make better decisions in complex situations.
In that context, the quality of the conversation is not secondary. It is central.
A technically competent organization may still be experienced as a supplier. A technically competent organization whose people consistently create clarity, confidence and commitment may be experienced as a trusted strategic partner.
That difference has commercial consequences. Customers share more when they trust more. They explore more when they feel understood. They commit more deeply when the future they are moving toward is clear and attractive. They advocate more when the experience of working with you feels meaningfully different.
This is where PSP helps organizations develop professionals who make customers want to share more, explore more and build more. It supports both account growth and new business development through relevance, trust and advocacy rather than pressure.
Moving toward a Blue Ocean type of position
In many markets, companies try to differentiate by improving what everyone else is already doing. They want better questioning. Better value messaging. Better insight. Better negotiation. Better account planning.
All of this can help. But it often keeps the organization within the same competitive comparison. You may become better, but still comparable.
The more interesting strategic opportunity is to create a different kind of customer experience that competitors cannot easily copy by buying the same methodology. This is why the Personal Selling Program – PSP™ can support a more distinctive, Blue Ocean type of position.
Not by leaving the market. Not by ignoring competition. But by changing how customers experience the organization inside the market.
When customers feel that your people help them think more clearly, connect more deeply with what they want, and make decisions with more confidence and ownership, they are no longer only comparing products, features, prices or presentations. They are comparing the quality of the relationship. They are comparing the quality of the thinking you help them do. They are comparing the way they feel about the future after speaking with you.
That is much harder to commoditize.
A recommended next step
The best next step is not to begin with a broad methodology comparison. That often reduces the opportunity to a smaller question: “Is this better than what we already have?” That may be useful, but it is not the most powerful question.
A better next step is a focused strategic conversation with sales enablement and commercial leadership about what the organization wants its customer relationships to become.
- Where does the current approach already work well?
- Where does it create structure and discipline that should be preserved?
- Where do customers still experience the organization as similar to competitors?
- Where is there potential to create a more distinctive customer experience?
- Could PSP help create a quality of relationship, trust and motivation that competitors cannot easily copy?
Following that, a small pilot with selected senior professionals and leaders is the most reliable way to evaluate the potential. The purpose of the pilot would not be to test another technique. It would be to let experienced people feel the difference directly.
A document can describe the difference. A pilot can make it visible.
In summary
Many organizations have built valuable sales capability through classic Stretch Selling methodologies. That foundation should be respected and carried forward.
The Personal Selling Program – PSP™, using the Satisfaction Selling method, offers a different next step. It is not designed simply to make an organization a better competitor with a better method. It is designed to create a different customer experience and, over time, a more distinctive market position.
The central shift is from applying a method to creating a different quality of presence, trust and motivation. The promise is healthier growth, stronger advisory relationships, greater customer ownership and differentiation that competitors cannot copy simply by buying a similar methodology.
The opportunity is to move from competing better to becoming different.
For professional B2B organizations that want to take customer development, account growth and commercial leadership to the next level, this may be one of the most important strategic conversations to have.
