Selling When Everything Looks the Same

One of the hardest realities in business is that — at some point — your product or service will look “the same” as everyone else’s.

I’ve been in digital long enough to hear it directly:
“All agencies build web experiences the same.”
“Every integration does the same thing.”

And you know what? On the surface, they weren’t wrong. Tools evolve, best practices spread, and before long, everything does look commoditized.

But here’s the leadership lesson: outcomes are never commodities.

Early in my career, I remember pitching a major nonprofit. We were stacked against three agencies, all with similar case studies and nearly identical price points. At one point, their CIO looked at me and said flat out: “Why should we pick you? Everyone we invited can do the same thing.”

That could have been the end of the conversation. Instead, I leaned in. I dropped the talk about platforms and specs and asked about what really mattered: how they planned to grow membership, how fundraising could scale, and how their communications team could stop struggling with day-to-day roadblocks.

Then I walked them through a vision of how we’d help them get there — not just with technology, but with the way we worked alongside them.

We won the partnership. Not because our product looked different — it didn’t. We won because we made their outcomes the center of the story.

That moment has stuck with me across every business I’ve built and sold. Products change. Markets shift. But the way you lead through commoditization doesn’t.

• Outcomes beat features. The leaders who win focus relentlessly on impact, not checklists. They sell the result — the growth, the efficiency, the transformation.

• Service is a differentiator. The experience people have working with you becomes your moat. It costs almost nothing compared to the loyalty it generates.

• Partnership builds trust. Great leaders aren’t order takers. They listen, advise, and sometimes steer clients away from the easy “yes” to the harder but better path.

• Brand is the risk reducer. In every market, buyers choose the safest option. Building a reputation is the long game that makes sales easier and cycles shorter.

In other words: when everything looks the same, leadership is what makes the difference.