Are you at the "forefront" of your industry?

There's one part of the IT industry that I spend a lot of time focusing on and every client and prospect I speak to thinks they are the absolute best. On a weekly basis someone tells me "no one is doing what we're doing", "we're at the forefront of our industry", "none of our competitors have a product like ours", etc.

Plenty of my clients complain that "all [us] recruiters sound the same" and that our sales pitches are identical. Why should they use our services if we all sound the same? Based off that feedback I've tried to change my pitch. I don't use any of the standard recruitment buzzwords, I instead go straight for the jugular: "I'm talking to a great salesperson at [your competitor] who wants to make a move, would you be interested in having a chat to them?" It shows that I 1) know their industry because I know exactly what companies they compete with and 2) that I'm willing to back my services with actions (supplying a good candidate) and not empty rhetoric.

But so many of the clients that spend their time scrutinising their suppliers can't articulate why someone would want to work for them - and in particular why they would want to leave a competitor to work for them. They all think that they are revolutionising the IT industry with what they do.

I've been asked about what vendor/service provider someone should use for their business and I referred them to the company that impressed me the most as a recruiter. They weren't a client but they pitched me incredibly well and never once said that they were the best or at the forefront. If you have to say it, it's probably not true.

One of my candidates just finished a project for a major telco. They were offering a new service but as far as they could tell all the providers in the industry looked the same - even them. So they commissioned him to find out points of difference and give them a way to differentiate themselves. Theirs is by far not the best product in the market, but that shows me a great level of self-awareness. I spoke to all of their competitors to see if they were interesting in using his knowledge to help them with their go-to-market strategy. The reply was the same from all of them - they knew what they were doing. They didn't need help with their strategy as they were already miles ahead of all their competitors. No one was doing what they were doing. They just needed pure hunter BDMs to go out and win new business.

So who are you pitching to? How do you sell your business when someone sells to you? How do you sell your business to people you interview for jobs? How are you perceived in your industry? If you're the 'best' in the market, what can you say to show that, rather than say it?