Sell them the benefits!

"These are great. They used to be brand leader!" was the last ditch pitch from the stationery goods sales representative stood beside me in Goss's General Store. He offered Mrs Goss the card of ball-pens from his now empty sample bag. She remained indifferent ...and seized the opportunity to serve me as her excuse to close the sale.

I remember that lovely sales cameo from about 40 years ago. Today our friend the sales representative could have used a different story.
"Consumers prefer these because they're not brand leader!"
Well that is the case according to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research. To be precise what they are telling us is that consumers do actually favour underdogs. It seems that it is part of our psyche to sympathise with a hero who has overcome a disadvantaged start compared to their adversary, and who triumphed because of a determination to beat the odds. Remember how we all felt about Leonardo di Caprio's character Jack in Titanic when he came up against Billy Zane?
In terms of market position it is something that Avis Car Rentals recognised almost 50 years ago. They were second behind Hertz and made a marketing virtue out of it...adopting the slogan "We try harder"

They make a positive persuasive statement to their customers that they should expect to be treated better with Avis.
Yet many of us in business do not follow the Avis lesson. Perhaps we believe it is better to pre-empt what we feel is a conspicuous weakness and confess that we are "a small company" or "quite new" or  "provincially located."
And then because language works at two levels... not only do we make the prospects see a concern that they probably didn't have ...but we also send a sub-conscious negative signal of our own lack of belief and determination.
So check out your own language. Are you making a virtue out of being "a responsive company" with "a fresh approach" and "free of expensive overheads.  
Time to be a hero in your business!