I've been doing some research this week into people who seem to be getting exceptional results from the same basic activities that most people get mediocre results from.

So in other words they're not following a completely different strategy. They're doing roughly the same as everyone else. But they're doing a few extra things that make a real difference.

And by and large it turns out that those few extra things aren't mysterious or difficult to do. They just involve hard work and going the extra mile.

I spoke to one guy who's getting great results by sending video and audio messages to his clients and prospects instead of just emails. It's helping him really stand out from all the other people trying to get through and just going the easy route.

I studied another guy who is uber-systematic in his networking. When he meets or finds out about someone he'd like to have a strong relationship with he sets a goal of having 6 touchpoints with them in the next few weeks.

He then makes sure that during that time he'll have spoken to them face to face or over the phone, connected and interacted on social media, commented on a blog post etc.

And he goes way beyond the trite communications most people do. He researches that person, sees what they're interested in and who they interact with. Then he ensures he has something of real value for them when he communicates.

Third example: I saw a great case study today of a guy who's been winning a number of consulting projects with well known names on the web. His secret: cold emails. 

But not just any old cold emails. And certainly not the “I can get you to number one in google” type cold emails.

Instead he does personal reviews of their websites on video with detailed (but respectful) recommendations. He sends them the videos and offers to work with them to make the improvements he's identified.

In all these cases (and many more) the person didn't do anything radically different to their competitors. But they took a number of small extra steps that made a big difference and made them stand out. Steps any of their competitors could have taken, but didn't.

Often we don't have to radically change what we're doing to get big improvements in results. We just need to figure out those small steps that our competitors don't or aren't prepared to do – and do them.