One of our Sandler Rules is, "If you want to be treated differently, you must act differently." While that definitely applies to organizations and salespeople, it also applies to marketing. We also have Sandler Rule #35: If your competition is doing it, stop doing it right away.

Of course, you can apply either of these rules too literally, but that's not what we're suggesting. Let's look at how you can apply some Sandler concepts in marketing to help you stand out.

Talk about the pain you solve

In sales, we discuss finding out what pain you can take care of for a prospect. In marketing, you'll need to appeal to many prospects at once while staying focused on your ideal prospect.

Most marketing is focused on the features and benefits. There's a time and place to let people know what they're buying from you, but if you want to be more effective, talk about the pains you actually solve.

Don't make assumptions

Your marketing should be pain-based and question-based. Don't assume your prospect has a particular pain—ask! If your marketing makes absolute statements about how you're always the right solution or that everyone suffers from the same exact pains, you can cause people to disengage.

Talk about why you might be a bad fit

It's a pretty standard practice for marketing materials to discuss how the company or product is a great fit. What if it also mentioned when you're not a good fit?

In your marketing material, communicate the industries you specialize in, your company culture, and even services or products you're sometimes asked for that you don't provide.

Be consistent

Just as most organizations struggle with consistency in their sales efforts and strategy, many aren't consistent with their marketing either.

There are a few critical parts of your marketing where you should strive for consistency: timing, content, tone, and branding. Most organizations struggle with timing, and blocking out time for marketing activities can help a lot.

Those are just a few ways you can differentiate yourself from your competition by marketing differently. Which of those will you start implementing, either on your own or with professional help?