Your USP is an actual statement (sometimes
called an elevator pitch) that tells your customer why they should do
business with you versus any other company, including doing nothing at
all. This statement explains how you are going to solve your customer's
particular problem and it will show them how you will treat them AFTER
the sale.
Your customer is buying on emotion. Price is
rarely the
only reason we make a purchase. Once we have purchased on that emotion,
we use logic to back it up. Therefore, the sale has many emotions tied
to it and the customer has a lot of trust riding on the sale. If you
can give the customer tools to allow them to trust you more, to give
yourself credibility, they will let their guard down and allow the sale
to commence.
You USP is is going to bridge that gap of
credibility between you and the customer. If you craft your USP with a
lot of time and energy, really putting a lot of emotion and thought
into it, you can build a statement that will pull customers in from
many different sources. For example, think of FedEx. Their USP is "When
it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight." There are
hundreds of other delivery services after them, all with speedy titles
in their names, but when I want something to be there the next day, I
know where I'm going.
Your USP will position your sales business
in a particular niche. Just like the FedEx example, if you build the
niche first, your competitors (or even fellow salespeople) will have a
real hard time taking your territory away from you. This is the single
most powerful statement that you can create for your business. This is
not something that you whip out in 2 minutes. Lame examples like
"quality is number one" will never do the trick. You need to do you
homework, test your top 2-3 and you will have a USP that really helps
you close the sale and makes your whole sales process easier.
If you are in a
selling profession or you have a
business that sells, you need a way to let your customers know exactly
how you will treat them, before and after the sale. A unique selling
proposition is a tool that will accomplish just that. Gone are the days
of cold-calling and numbers games. The smart sales people know that
pre-qualifying is the way to go. Read on to find out how you can use
your USP to pre-qualify your sales leads to close more often and with
less actual selling.
