May
27
What do you actually sell?
Recently I have been educated to the notion of the Unique Selling Proposition, (or USP) which is another of many important business concepts that I didn’t learn during my undergrad at a business school (hrmm). I have to give credit to CJ McClanahan at Reach More Strategies for bringing it to my attention. I recently went through his Reach Class and was enlightened to just how simple it can be to portray value to your customers and business contacts.
As easy I might now think it is, I have commonly seen myself and others in the past get wrapped up in the features and benefits of their products and services, which it seems very few people actually care about, especially in a service sector. While important, what really matters to a customer seems to be summed up in a variety of questions like:
“How is what you do going to make/save me money?”
“How is what you do going to make my life better/easier?”
So how do you figure that out? Personally, Iike the following question as a conversation starter:
“What’s important to you?”
Past some of the word finagling that goes on trying to get to the core of “What’s important to you,” some really deep stuff tends to come out, which is generally more connecting than the normal prospect / salesperson conversation that normally occurs.
The answers differ across industries and specific customers, but having asked the question (and actually acting on this answer) is different enough to completely differentiate you from a majority of sales people who have come through the door prior.
Back to the USP
Over the next few weeks, I’ll be blogging about a few assorted businesses in my contact list, all under the focus of Unique Selling propositions as they apply to those businesses. Looking forward to your comments!