Episode #261: Honing Our Unique Selling Proposition

Every minute, there is more and more competition for the same clients, so we need to differentiate ourselves very clearly. I see new competitors entering the market all of the time, even during Covid. You would think at least during Covid, things would quieten down a bit on the competitor front, but no. Existing competitors are getting more and more desperate, so they start giving everything away and this puts tremendous pressure on pricing. What we absolutely don’t want is for the buyer to think they can just swap another company’s solution in to replace us. The price fight is the path to oblivion. We have to change the competition battlefield to value, instead of pricing.

We need our USPs to be crisp and sharp to make sure the buyer knows we are different and better than the competition. We need to point out what we are offering that they are not. One of the dangers of selling the same line up of products over a number of years is we become numb to their special characteristics. When we first start out studying the product range we are excited, we are desperate to get a clear understanding of the lineup, so we can explain its features and benefits to the buyer. Over time that freshness decays. We also get lured into a price discussion with the client.

When crafting our Unique Selling Proposition we need to look at things from the buyer’s perspective. It is no help talking about what we sell. That is tremendously interesting to us, but more importantly what is of interest to the buyer? We can get bogged down in the nitty gritty of the spec, the detail, the data. More importantly, we want to know what are they trying to buy? What problems do they need help solving? Where do they need more value? When do they need it?

For example, in our own case, we may think we sell sales training, but what company buyers want is to receive greater per head sales revenue outcomes from their salespeople. We sell outcomes and the training service is the tool to achieve that. We can easily get confused about that though. Do our USPs address the typical objections which arise when explaining our solution?

Let’s make us the case study, to make the key points a bit clearer. For you own product or service, do a similar analysis and see what you come up with. For Dale Carnegie Training we have been in operation since 1912. The client doesn’t care a fig about that. What they do care about is risk reduction for themselves. A track record of 109 years provides the client with the sense that this company has a solid track record, so therefore, they are more trustworthy as a result. “I won’t get fired or rebuked for recommending this company with such a substantial, safe, track record” is what they are thinking.

We teach 90% of the Fortune 500 companies. Again, “so what” from the buyer’s point of view. The essence of the USP here has to be that these Fortune 500 companies are the richest and most powerful companies and they can choose whoever they want to provide training services. The fact that they choose Dale Carnegie is an indication that the biggest organisations have done their due diligence and like what we do, so we are a safe choice. In Japan everyone wants to know about precedent, because no one wants to be the early adopter. They don’t want to be the test case. They want to be mainstream, which is the safest position with the least risk.

We have offices in 100 countries. This is another “so what” potential reaction from clients.

We need to point out that because of our global network, we can deliver training where ever the client is located and we can do it in the language and cultural context of that society, ensuring the best reception of the training content. We have to work out where is the relevancy for this client? Maybe it is just irrelevant. In that case we don’t waste valuable client facing time and we find another USP which is more relevant.

Our trainers are required to complete 250 hours of train-the-trainer content before they can be certified by Dale Carnegie and be allowed to instruct. The point is to mention that this whole process takes about a year and a half and only the most motivated and dedicated people are willing to put themselves through this rigorous process. This is why our trainers are the “best of the best”.

The client has no idea about our internal processes and standards, so we need to place these in a context which is meaningful for them. For example, we might talk about this tough internal standards arrangement being a cure for the common training company issue of some instructors are really good and others are not so good. In these companies, there is no consistency and therefore no certainty as to what service level you will receive.

The point of the USPs is to differentiate what we are doing from our competitors and give the client the comfort that they are making a wise decision in choosing us to provide the solution to their problems. So, blow some dust off your own USPs and get the salespeople doing some drills on USPs in their morning role play practices, before they talk to or see any clients.