Create Distinction, with Scott McKain – Episode 4 of The Action Catalyst Podcast

Best-selling author, Hall of Fame speaker, and distinction expert Scott McKain explains different vs. distinctive, pursuit vs. attraction, the 4 cornerstones of setting yourself apart, and how creating clarity often means saying “no”.

About Scott:

Scott’s matchless experiences have continued throughout his life. They range from playing the villain in a Werner Herzog film that Roger Ebert called one of the 50 “great movies” in cinema history to being booked to speak by Arnold Schwarzenegger for an event on the White House lawn with the President in the audience; from being the author of business books named among the “year’s ten best” to membership of multiple Boards of Directors.

The tapestry of Scott McKain’s distinctive experiences have blended to create the inimitable content that makes him one of the world’s most in-demand business experts and speakers.

Scott first became interested in business — and creating Ultimate Customer Experiences® — while helping in the family business, the grocery store in his hometown of Crothersville, Indiana.

After high school graduation, Scott was elected as the Indiana President, then as a National Officer of a half-million-member student leadership organization. By the end of his terms, Scott had presented over 1,000 speeches on platforms ranging from high school cafeterias to arenas with audiences of 20,000+ in attendance. By age 21, Scott had chatted with the President in the Oval Office, lunched with the President of Brazil, had a private meeting with the Chairman of General Motors, and dined with the real-life Colonel Sanders of KFC fame.

These unique experiences as a youth inspired both a passion for the platform and a fascination with business and leadership that continues to this day.

Scott has delivered over 2,000 presentations in 36 countries across six of the seven continents helping audiences create more compelling connections, provide ultimate customer experiences and stand out personally and professionally.

Scott shares his distinctive ideas and iconic speaking style to the most important events in the world and has been honored with the following:

• Currently “Corporate Educator in Residence” at High Point University, named by U.S. News & World Report as the nation’s “most innovative” university.
• He has been honored with induction into the “Professional Speakers Hall of Fame.”
• He was selected to join Seth Godin, Zig Ziglar, and Dale Carnegie as one of about 25 members of the “Sales and Marketing Hall of Fame.”
• He is a member of “Speakers Roundtable” — an elite, invitation-only group of twenty business speakers considered by many to be among the best in the world.

Scott currently lives with his wife Tammy in Las Vegas where they are involved in several charitable organizations.

Learn more at ScottMcKain.com.

The Action Catalyst is presented by the Southwestern Family of Companies. With each episode, the podcast features some of the nation’s top thought leaders and experts, sharing meaningful tips and advice. Learn more at TheActionCatalyst.com, subscribe below or wherever you listen to podcasts, and be sure to leave a rating and review!

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(Transcribed using A.I. / May include errors):

Host
Scott McKain is the country’s leading expert on creating business and professional distinction. So what Scott really does as he help create more compelling connections between you and your customers, helps you stand out and move up in every phase of business, best selling author. And he has a great book called Create distinction, what to do when great isn’t good enough to grow your business. So he’s here to talk to us today about creating distinction. Scott McKain, thank you for being here, brother.

Scott McKain
Thank you so much for having me with you this morning. I really appreciate it, man. Thank you.

Host
Talk to us, like, why did you kind of build this career around that word? And why do you think that distinction is so important in in business today?

Scott McKain
Great question. Yeah, you only heard so much about differentiation, you know, we, we need to establish differentiation between us than our competition, or what do we do to differentiate ourselves from other people on the job so that we get the promotion. And it occurred to me, you know, If I slap every customer in the face, I’m different. That doesn’t mean to grow my business, right. So there had to be something else. And as I looked at other industries, you know, for example, you walk into a Best Buy store to buy a laptop computer. Sony is differentiated, Samsung Dell are differentiated from from the great math is like a third a Seuss and gateway and Fujitsu. But Apple is truly distinctive. And so what does it take not just to be different from your competitor, but to be so distinctive, that you attract people to do business with you. And that that’s true, whether you’re an individual salesperson out there, or you know, making calls and knocking on doors, or whether you’re the CEO of a small, mid or large size business, we all have to find ways to answer this critical question. And that is, how can my customers tell the difference between the competition?

Host
So what’s the real difference between being distinct and not just different?

Scott McKain
Well, there’s a couple of ways in the in in the book, I talk about the four cornerstones of distinction as we examine distinctive organizations to the stinky professionals. It was interesting that not only did they have these four qualities, but they tended to do the floor in a specific order, and in a similar order to one another. But to answer that specific question about how can you tell, I think it’s the difference, the difference between pursuit and attraction, a differentiated company or a company that’s trapped in that sea of sameness. Man, they have to be out there hustling and knocking on doors and just tracking down at hunting customers. He distinctive organization has a plan of acquisition. So they’re out there, you know, trying to get new customers, but they are so compelling. Customers are attracted to do business with them. You know, Apple does a lot in the business world, there’s a lot of businesses that have Apple computers in the business, that Apple practically had the zero size Salesforce for the business arena. And the reason is, because those of us that like Apple go to work and got a you know, gosh, we, instead of using the Blackberry, we wanted to use our iPhones at work. Instead of using a typical Windows machine, we want to use our Macbook Pro at work. Now, Apple is an overused example. But we can find it whether it’s Enterprise rental car, because they bring the car to us. In the Pacific Northwest Les Schwab tires, because they run out to service. There are many, many examples of even small businesses that do something incredibly distinctive to make a difference. And it turns customers into advocates, we’re out there, I’m on the phone telling you that you’ve got to do business at this place. Because they provide such a compelling experience. If we put as much effort into making our businesses distinctive, as we do and to track it down. And see, this is where the price question comes into play as well. People say, Well, you know, they’re, they’re loyal to me, because I’ve got the cheapest price. Well, they’re not loyal to you, they’re loyal to the price. The critically important aspect of getting out of that cyclical nature of we’ve got to have the cheapest try to get business. And then we erode our margins. And then we’re not a profitable organization, or a salesperson on the road, blames the home office because they won’t cut the price instead of becoming a better salesperson. All of these are challenges that we see every single day in businesses everywhere.

Host
Now one of the things you mentioned earlier, the four cornerstones of distinction. You know, the first one is clarity. And I love this because you say in the book, that clarity means being just as exact about who you are not, as it does with who you really are. And yet there’s this temptation to always say, Well, yeah, I do that too. How do you in terms of creating clarity? How do you most effectively determine who you are not? Or what things you should say no to?

Scott McKain
It comes out of where are you willing to plant your flag in the ground? That is what you stand for? What are my new favorite television shows on the Food Network? It’s called restaurant impossible. The new Chef Robert Irvine news in save, you know, the failing restaurant, and it occurred to me that without fail, one of the things he does is take items off the menu, because so many of these restaurants keep adding items to think well if we Through Chinese dishes, then, you know, we’ll get some more customers there. And if we have Italian dishes, we’ll get some work through there. And if we do that at the end of the day, then they appeal to no one, because they don’t have customers want clarity about what you are. And so I would begin by taking a look at where are you going to plant your flag in the ground, it doesn’t mean that you can’t do other things. For example, you know, Papa John says better ingredients, better pizza, but they still deliberate most locations. But when you think of fast and quick delivery, you tend to think of Domino’s. So Domino’s planted their flag in the ground at delivery. And that’s where the point of emphasis is going to be. Papa John’s has planted their flag of the ground of having better ingredients that are better pizza, so their flag is in the ground about a better case. Well, even though these two businesses compete with each other, we as customers have a pretty clear idea of when we want a higher quality pizza, who we’re going to call, or if we’re hungry, and we need it in 30 minutes, who we’re going to call and so that that’s the key is letting your customers know where your flag is in the ground and what you stand for. And then it just in terms of prioritization, gosh, we just don’t have time to get it all done. Well, that’s the problem. You’re trying to get it all done. I want to flag in the ground and say, This is who we are. And this is what we’re clear about. And then spend your time emphasizing your clarity, I get it, look, let’s face it, customers, and employees too, will never become loyal to a generic. I’ve never seen that the grocery store or these white cans of beer on them. And I don’t know that anybody was loyal to beer that certain people would pick up a Bud Light, or certain people pick up a six pack of Coors or that oh, that kind of thing with all buddies loyal, who is generic, you’re loyal to something that’s specific, you’re loyal to something, whether it’s a person that has your loyalty, or whether it’s an organization by how they treat you or what they do distinctively, that creates loyalty. But you can’t differentiate what you can’t define. I can’t tell you how I’m better or, or different from my competitor, unless I first defined it. But yet many of us just keep doing our job. And we assume the customer is gonna know. If product is one thing. What else do you sell? Well, let’s make a list of those things that you sell. And every organization will say, Oh, we have great customer service. And we have great relationships with our customers, we peace of mind, and all of these things. Well, there’s two critical points about that. First of all, the things that they say they sell, are absolutely identical to what the competitor.

Host
Scott, it’s been such a great time with you. And we you know, one last little question, I just wanted to make sure that we we gave you a chance to speak on as I love how in this book, you talk about creating distinction, not not only as a successful like business principle, but also that it applies to a person on an individual level.

Scott McKain
Real quickly, it’s the four cornerstones is being clear about what you are one of the things we you know, Zig Ziglar used to talk about the people that are wandering generalities, you know, that they never really focused on anything or achieve anything. So it’s being very clear about what you want them, it’s being creative in your approach, finding a way to go at it in a unique and creative manner. There’s a three step plan in the book about how you how you actually execute on creativity. The third is communication. And what we find that in today’s world of people want a narrative. It’s not that they don’t want facts and figures and information they do. But they want it placed within a compelling narrative. So it’s learning how to communicate, it’s learning how to tell a story. And then the fourth and final one is a customer experience focus. So whether we’re talking about the external customers that an organization serves, or the internal customers that you and I serve, as we work inside our organization, we not only have to look at how we deliver the the aspect of our job, but also how it makes people feel, how are we connecting with them? How are we growing relationships, our weak stimulating people that are our advocates and our supporters? So if you follow those four, as a professional, you’re going to stand down as an organization you’re gonna stand out. And and I think that’s part of what we’re looking for in today’s world is what can I do so that I can achieve my potential? What can I do so I can get recognized for my effort. And if we do those things, I think we’re well on the pathway to creating distinction.

Host
I love it. I love it folks. Clarity, creativity, communication, customer experience, focus. Those are the four cornerstones. Scott, thanks for being with us, brother.

Scott McKain
Thank you. You bet.