Consumers buy more than your products and services. They buy the rich meanings and value it can bring to their lives or their business. It is the meanings they give to your offering that activate their buying and gets them interested, engaged and motivated to take action. This article will show you the 5 steps to creating a unique selling proposition.
In every interaction, you must be building your value proposition to entice your buyers to know more and engage more. You are in the business of creating value that a buyer can relate to. You have always been and always will be selling the value your customers attach to your product or service. People buy products and services because they enrich their lives or business in some way. They buy your offering because of how it makes them feel; empowered, relaxed, delighted, etc. It’s different for everybody. But VALUE is the driver at the heart of every purchase. Can you articulate the value your customers are buying from you?
I often get asked by companies to work with them on creating a value proposition so that their sales team can use it to strengthen their sales pitch and win more business. So here are 5 steps to creating a unique selling proposition worth buying that will help you in your sales activities.
1. Name the business you are in
You are in the results business. Name the business you are in by identifying what your business does for others. We are all in business to create results outside ourselves. If we do it well, the reward is we get paid well for it and customers come back. When the value is there, you can build business and a client base from it. Your business is an enabler in some way. What does your business do to enable others? You know you understand your business when you can name the business you are in. This can be identified by asking yourself, what do we improve or make better because we exist? How would we describe that?
2. Articulate exactly how you make a difference
There is an easy way to work this out. What can your clients not do that you can do for them faster, quicker or with more knowledge? Without you, what are they missing or unable to do? What would it cost them to develop your skills, products or services? So if you have that product or service that improves their business, then that is what difference does it make?
Is the difference about financial efficiency, experience, reputation, risk, expertise, enabling others in communication? Does your business enhance a customer experience, transform a business model, enhance performance for a group of people, protect a business, make communication easier, improve human capital, retain talent, create reputations or a business image? You are now digging into the real value around why your business exists, which you can bring to your sales conversations with your clients. Complete this sentence, “Our business makes a difference by…”
3. List three things about your business that are unique
What is unique about what your business offering does? Perhaps you have expertise or tools that efficiently eliminate a business problem or transform behaviours through technology or impact the way people communicate with others. The three ideas you come up with will form the foundation of your strategy when it comes to having meaningful conversations with your prospects and customers. Use the ideas around transforming a problem, taking a business or person to another level of performance, or designing a new way of operating. It will all depend on what you do in your industry and what makes you stand out.
4. Turn these three things into questions for your buyer
This is a mantra of mine; the best sales people ask questions. So what question would you ask your buyer around value that they can directly relate to your products? What is their business losing because they don’t have the right solution in place? What would change their life or business if they had that solution? An example may be around performance of a business – What could they add to their business by having __________ (fill in your unique difference). If you get into the habit of turning your value statements into questions, you build the foundations for high-quality sales conversations.
5. Share your unique value as a story of success
This is the Social Proof tool. Social Proof is term that is used in the book called Influence; The Psychology of Persuasion, where people assume the actions of others are the right behaviours that get results. So if somebody else is successful, they are an example that can spark a greater interested in a new prospect. An existing success story implies that the prospect can be successful to. People always want to eliminate risk. The Social Proof story facilitates that. It is far more powerful to tell a story of how a customer has been successful because of results you created, than to talk about your own success and achievements and what you might do out there in the future.
It is important to have a success story from your pool of happy clients to demonstrate your value as proven. You are showing how you have already created value and endorsing your offering though real proof. It is important to make your story relevant, tangible and real to the prospect.
Without a well-thought-out value proposition, you are forever suspended in the zone of talking about products, features and benefits. People always buy value. If you explore all of your own purchases, you may discover you bought them because they had a high-value meaning for you. How well can you articulate your value so that your prospects and clients listen?
If you would like to work on developing your Value proposition Visit our Page on Design My Company Value Proposition here to learn more.