Doing the unexpected is powerful.  When we unexpectedly surprise someone with a compliment, it makes them feel better than a compliment they were expecting. When we give someone a gift they weren’t expecting, the gift is that much more special. When we unexpectedly do something for someone, the impact is far greater than when it was expected.

Being unexpected is a force multiplier.  It increases the impact and value of any offer, deed, gift or engagement tenfold.

When we deliver the unexpected, it triggers people’s brains. It triggers a circuit called the ACC (Anterior Cingular Cortex) by telling it to take notice; this isn’t normal. When we are forced out of our expected patterns, we pay more attention and are more in tune to what’s happening. Being unexpected actually affects us physically.

Being unexpected in sales works. Selling is all about getting people to stop what they are doing and pay attention to us, our emails, our calls, our products, everything, yet most us do what everyone else does. We follow the same script. There is nothing unexpected about what we do or how we do it. We write boring emails that sound like everyone else’s. We leave boring messages that do nothing to catch our prospects off-guard. We send the same, expected thank you notes, which get lost in the stack of all the other boring thank you notes. We do very little to surprise our prospects when it comes to selling, yet surprising our buyers is exactly what we need to do.

If you want to get more of your buyer’s and prospect’s time, ask yourself how you can surprise them more. How can you catch them off guard? How can you deliver in ways they don’t see coming? How can your engagements surprise your customers, buyers, and prospects?

Don’t do what’s expected. Stop doing what everyone else is doing. Look for ways to make your customers or prospects say, “Whoa, I didn’t see that coming!” They’ll remember that.