The quality of a person’s life is in direct proportion
to their commitment to excellence . . . —Vince Lombardi

Many years ago, I took my sales team to a Tony Robbins motivational seminar. One of Robbins’ biggest points was the power of being outstanding. He cited example after example of how the person in first place gets almost all of the rewards and recognition. The other finishers may only be behind by milliseconds, but they essentially get no recognition.

During the 2008 Summer Olympics, what athlete gained the most recognition? Swimmer Michael Phelps. He earned recognition because he placed first in eight different races. He won one of the races by one one-hundreth of a second! In an interview after the race, Phelps said that when he watched the slow-motion video of his and the other swimmer’s hands touching the wall, he could not see whose hand touched first. Do you know the name of the other swimmer? Likely not. Yet, he swam just as fast as Phelps.

Here is one more of a limitless number of examples. Tour de France cyclists race for many hours over thousands of miles over three weeks. The winner is usually no more than ten minutes faster than the tenth place finisher. I remember one year, 2003, when the winner finished just one minute ahead of second place—after racing for 5,021 minutes! I will bet you only recognize the name of the winner, Lance Armstrong, and do not recognize the name of Jan Ullrich—even though they essentially finished at the same time. Lance Armstrong is called one of the best athletes of all time. What is Jan Ullrich called?

To be an outstanding salesperson, deliver outstanding results for your customer. You will then enjoy the “halo effect”—people giving you more credit than you deserve. Opportunities will come your way faster than you can deliver them.

Just do not make the mistake of sacrificing your outstanding delivery to take on more opportunities than you can handle.

You will definitely stand out in your customer’s mind if you help the customer make the changes that respond to the customer’s most pressing forces and achieve the customer’s most cherished internal needs.

will also be outstanding, at least by definition, if you play by different rules than your competitors. Make your rules consistency, trust, and high value.

Identify ways you can deliver outstanding value to your customer. Ask your customer how you can be outstanding. Be change-centric and deliver self-aligned value.