There are enough bad sales people out there who try and swindle people into buying something they simply don't want. Thanks to them, you can distinguish yourself as a proactive, resourceful, growth oriented, and results driven sales professional.

Use the presence of these bad sales people to distinguish your service offerings.

The continued presence of the unscrupulous sales person is what you'll use to remind your customers of your distinguishable characteristics. You'll subtly remind them of the dangers of the ever present "too good to be true", "over-promise/under-deliver", sales person whose only goal is the immediate sale. How you go about reminding them is by constantly raising the bar on how you service their account. You value the long term relationship, and want to bring successful and proven solutions to the table. Don't be afraid to ask those questions that get your customer to discuss their bad experiences with other sales people. You must listen when they express these frustrations, and help them open up about their bad experiences. When done correctly, it will help reinforce your position as the sales professional of choice. You must distinguish yourself as the sales person whose solid business acumen is only matched by your proactive, and results driven approach.

Invite your customer to expand on their bad experiences. Doing this will help you to uncover their service criteria.

Not every client will immediately come out and state their likes and dislikes. Often, these will be hidden, and it will be up to you to uncover them. While you may have tried to get them to open up about their expectations of service, they may have just decided to keep this to themselves. Some customers do this because they want to see how you'll perform. However, they'll accidently let their criteria slip out when they complain about prior experiences. This is your opportunity to better understand their needs, and at the same time, help to distinguish your approach versus other sales people. When your customer starts to bring this subject up, you'll subtly take control of the conversation by asking them to expand on their bad experiences. Explain that you want to understand what was done wrong, so that it's never a mistake made by you, or your company. In order to do this, you could use a variation of the following questions or statements.

• "If you don't mind me asking, what happened exactly?"

• "I know how difficult it is to be let down. Just so I don't make the same mistake, can you please tell me what happened?"

• "It's difficult when someone promises something and doesn't deliver. That's why my approach is to always review your requirements with you before you order."

• "It's never easy when you feel someone has lied to you. I know how that feels. I guess this is why I try and make sure, as often as possible, that I know exactly what you want."

Regardless of the problems your customer encounters, it's ultimately your job to travel down the road with them towards finding a solution. Your customer has surely had bad experiences with less than professional sales people in the past. They know the difference between a good and bad sales person. Thanks to these less than exemplary sales people, you have a chance to distinguish yourself as the best of the best.