Are you a commodity?
You may not reckon you are, but you market sure thinks so. Don’t believe me? Tell me what you’d say when someone asks what you do. (Full transcript below)
Full Transcript
Are you a commodity? You may not reckon you are, but you market sure thinks so.
Don’t believe me? Tell me what you’d say when someone asks what you do.
“I’m an accountant”, or “I provide finance”, “I’m a business coach”, “I do digital marketing”, “I help you with your social media presence”, “I create websites” or “I provide managed IT services”.
Frankly they’re all pretty boring!
These are all descriptions about what you do.
There is nothing unique about these. Not one provides a compelling value proposition, a clear, and outcome based statement of the tangible results a customer gets from your product or service.
Given these descriptions, I don’t know how I could benefit, so why would I bother listening further?
This is Rashid Kotwal from Revealed Resources.
If you want to stand out from the crowd, you must develop a strong unique value proposition that cuts through, immediately generating interest from your prospects.
Don’t use motherhood statements like quality, reliability, professionalism and customer service.
Only talk in terms of results and outcomes. Talk about the pain your prospects are likely to be experiencing and how you can alleviate it. What they could save. What they could make. Could be terms of time, money and effort.
The more specific tangible benefits the better.
So here are some examples from our clients.
A Financial Planner who works with clients preparing to go into aged care minimise their Bond and Daily Care Fees, while maximising their benefits from Centrelink, potentially saving themselves thousands of dollars a year.
Or the Investment Property Buyer who helps clients find, negotiate and settle on undervalued property so they make money right from the start. On average they secure property at $15,000 to $20,000 below market value so clients get an immediate return on capital investment which continues to grow long term.
And finally, a Photographic Lab servicing professional photographers who guarantees the physical prints will exactly match the captured images with no additional work on the photographer’s part or they get 110% of their money back.
Being specific and detailing tangible benefits gets attention and encourages your prospects to ask for more information.
Now it has another benefit too.
A strong, tangible value proposition helps you value your own product or services more. It builds your courage and confidence. So that you can pick up the phone and write to a prospect knowing that you add value and should at least be given a hearing.
Now, some of you might be stuck coming up with your own value proposition. Often we’re just too close to what we do and minimise our own value.
One of the best ways to find the answer is to ask your clients.
Call them up and ask what value you provide. What are the benefits? What did you do to help them?
You might be surprised at what they come up with.
Wrapping up, if you’d like additional help determining your uniqueness, and you can’t do youself, give me a call.
And finally, if you find this video useful I’d appreciate your hitting the like button, sharing it and leaving a comment below.
Until next time, this is Rashid Kotwal.
