The key tenet of modern marketing?

Stand out.

Looking to carve out your position in a crowded marketplace?

Stand out.

Trying to swim against the tied in a Red Ocean of long-entrenched competition?

Stand out.

Keen to topple the Top Dog competition in your space?

Stand out.

Stand out. Stand. Out. STAND OUT!

Are you getting the picture here?

Koo! But of course the question now is…

How???

How Do You Make Your Business STAND OUT in Your Marketplace?

In my last post, I stressed the need to be CRYSTAL CLEAR on the value your services provide.

Not the features of your services. And not merely the benefits behind your services. But rather, the way the benefits make your clients FEEL.

Because in the end, that relief, that solution to their problems, that fulfillment of their needs is what your clients are DESPARATELY seeking.

I also mentioned marketing maestro + author, C. Richard Weylman, and the concept he coined in his book, The Power of Why: Unique Value Promise (UVP).

Weylman turns the typical Unique Selling Proposition (USP), a long-time pillar of marketing strategy, concept on its head.

While the Unique portion of this classic concept remains the same, Weylman swap Selling for Value.

His reasoning?

Selling is the push. It’s the pressure. The “being sold” that every buyer positively LOATHES.

But value is what all buyers hope to derived from every purchase they make.

Next, Weylman trades Position for Promise.

Here Weylman notes that YOUR positioning is all about YOU. And what do we know about modern-day consumers?

When it comes to doing business with you (or really anyone for that matter), prospects care about exactly ONE THING: What’s In It For Me.

Some call it the WIIFM syndrome. But regardless of whether you consider it a disease, it’s a plague that’s here to stay.

So, rather than fight the rising tide, Weylman embraces the circumstances at hand and puts the focus on the client, with a PROMISE.

How Do You Craft Your UVP + Put It To Work For Your Business?

Weylman serves up a six-step process to create and implement your UVP.

Step 1: Survey Your BEST Clients

Remember up above when we discussed the FEELINGS your clients experience thanks to the benefits your services provide?

Well, those feelings are exactly what drives your BEST clients to work with you again and again.

So, gather as many of these clients as you can, as ask them… Why?

Why do they do business with you?

Why do your services scratch their particular itch (especially when there are so many other options)?

What satisfaction comes from working with you?

How do they FEEL when you’ve served up a “job well done” on their behalf?

And don’t let them off with pat, nondescript answers.

“You always do a good job.

You’re easy to work with.

We like working with you.”

Those are great sentiments. And if they didn’t feel that way, they wouldn’t be repeatedly returning to your doorstep.

But these platitudes don’t reveal much about WHY your clients feel this way.

Probe. Prod. Push below the superficial answer and dig into the WHY.

And toward this end, Weyland cautions your survey must be conducted in PERSON.

Written surveys are too easy pad with uninspired, wrote answers that tell you next to nothing.

Even telephone interviews fall short. You miss out on body language, facial expressions, and other physical cues that speak volumes in terms of non-verbal communication. It’s also tougher to press people on the phone, especially when delving into a particularly important point.

Step 2: Craft Your Promise

Boiled down to it’s essence, your UVP is a tagline.

It’s Hertz’s “We’re number 2, so we work harder”

Ford’s “Quality is Job 1”

McDonald’s “I’m Lovin it!”

To craft your Promise, fork through your survey data and ferret out the FEELINGS behind the benefits your services provide.

What sentiment do your clients consistently express?

Ultimately, what you’re looking for is the satisfaction your clients gain from the services you provide.

For example, if you’re an accountant, that might be… “You help us feel secure about our financial position” or “you always offer sound advice” or “you zero in on clear financial strategies.”

With these sentiments in hand, workshop taglines that embody these satisfactions.

But Weylman cautions against “telling the whole story” in your UVP.

Leave some mystery behind your phrase that invites prospects to ask for more.

Career Coach, Joanne Jastatt’s UVP is… “I’m Here to Help You Find Your Beat”

Los Angeles area commercial leasing firm’s UVP, which is placed beneath their name on every For Lease sign they post, reads… “The Sign of a Profitable Property”

The Famed business development consultant and author of the best-seller “Book Yourself Solid,” Michael Port convened an entire mastermind group to help himself and the rest of the group members craft their UVPs.And the result he came up with? “I’m The Guy You Call When You’re Tired of Thinking Small”

These are just a few samples, but hopefully, you get the idea. Your UVP, defined in a single statement, is the FEELING the CORE benefit your services generates in your ideal clients.

Step 3: Adapting Your Culture to Embody Your UVP

In a business context, “Culture” is often viewed as one of the nebulous concepts that’s difficult to pin down. Moreover, the idea that a small business with only a sole proprietor or just a couple of employees possesses a “culture” seems a tad outlandish to some.

But the truth is, your business, big or small, has a culture. And whether you realize it or not, your clients and prospects gain a sense of your culture pretty quickly after they begin interacting with your operation.

Thus, everything in your business should be organized around living up to your UVP.

Your UVP is the distinction that sets you apart from your competitors. It’s the factor makes doing business with you different (and ultimately better) than with anyone else.

And that means your entire organization, from top to bottom, needs to embody your distiction.

Step 4: Marketing Your Distinction

Your UVP is now the basis of your marketing efforts. It replaces all of your prior messaging, full of the same old “look at me – me – me” blather.

Your UVP is a fascination, a curiosity, and the starting point for a conversation that converts intrigued prospects into paying customers.

And as such, your UVP should be standing tall and front and center in every aspect of your marketing…

-At the top of your website home page

-In your email signature

-Emblazoned as a pull quote in your brochures, flyers, postcards, and other marketing collateral

-In the Johnny Box (the header section) atop your sales letters + emails

What I’m I forgetting? I know there’s something… But I think you get the idea.

Step 5: Selling Your Distinction

Long gone are the days of sales presentations where you drop a contract on the conference room table, throw up your feet, and reel off you’re well-practiced pitch all about why you’re the best guy or gal or multi-national conglomerate for the job.

Today’s customer-cetric buyers want one thing: their needs met. They couldn’t give a rat’s patootie about how great you think your business is.

Thus, the key to acing a sales meeting is all about probing your prospects wants, needs, and ultimate desires; reflect those needs, wants, and desires back to them; and illustrating how you can “solve all their problems.”

And how do you do this?

You guessed it, by relying on your UVP.

Your Unique Value Promise is at the CORE of what you do. It defines the what, why, and how your services can satisfy all of your prospect’s hopes + dreams.

Step 6: Customer Service

With your UVP fully established and standing front and center across your professional landscape, you’re poised to KILL IT in your marketplace.

That is, if you can keep your organization on the right track.

And what does that require?

Concerned, considered, and careful customer service. Customer services that leads with your UVP top of mind.

Fall short in the customer service department (even if you don’t technically have a “customer service department”), and your business falls short.

Which means, your customers are going bye-bye!

Need Help Crafting Your UVP?

Swing by my LinkedIn page and we can hammer something out!