Most Products and Services Are A Commodity

They really are. Before you jump me in an attempt to justify yourself how your business is different and somehow unique, hear me out.

The emerging market forces of technology, competition, globalization, regulation and consolidation ensure that few products are truly unique for very long. These same forces have become the Driving Forces of Commoditization.

Additionally, everything is more complex. Gone are the days when a company would develop a new product or process that could be easily understood by customers and clients. Technology alone has introduced more complexity into everything. Instead of making life simpler it has had the opposite effect of complicating our lives.

So what’s this got to do with selling? Fast forward a few frames in your prospects mind. Prospects don’t fully comprehend the complexity of the problems they experience or the solutions that are available. Because the human mind tends to compress complex data into easily understood thoughts and ideas your prospect resorts to making complex buying decisions based on things they can easily understand. And because they are overwhelmed with complexity their mind tends to simplify the decision process by lumping all competitive products as basically the same, in others words, a commodity.

If the prospect mistakenly thinks there is no difference in a competitor’s products and that “they are all pretty much the same” what do they make their decision to buy on? You got it. PRICE. Think about it. If you think “term insurance is term insurance” or “bank loans are bank loans” or “computers are computers” then the only logical reason to choose one over the other is price.

How as a professional salesperson can you get the prospect to understand that what you sell is different and not a commodity?