You’ve had that pen and pad moment attempting to figure out how you differentiate yourself (or selves) from the competition. Did you get anywhere?
Let’s revisit that moment. It’s important to the future of your business. The future’s important, right?
Rule one. Let’s throw out the term USP (Unique Selling Proposition). It’s antiquated and doesn’t deserve any consideration . Here’s why:
- Your proposition doesn’t have to be unique, it has to be better (that’s decided by your customer).
- This isn’t about selling anymore (this is about adding value).
- Proposition is good. We’ll retain this word.
Ready for a PEP session? Let’s go.
Give me a P!
PROPOSITION
The most valuable aspect of your offering. It has to be clear and concise. It has to grab attention. It has to be valuable. You can blog ’til your heart’s content (see what I did there?). You can scribble down ideas about your price-point and your objectives, what does your craft represent to your listening audience? What value do you provide me? This isn’t about the product you offer or the service you provide. This about how that piece fits into my world.
What will you help me create and achieve? Emotionally as well as physically.
Give me an E!
EXPERIENCE
We often overlook this. Don’t, it’s valuable. We talk about what we’ve done, we rarely rework this to how that impacts upon what we’re now doing. Does that make sense? How do you take what you’ve experienced and position this to help what I want right now?
Have you walked in my shoes as a customer?
Has your experience helped you to better understand how you can help me?
There’s a notion that experience has to be directly attached to your own industry. It doesn’t. I spent 5 years of my life building a business that sold guitars. I learned more about ‘business storytelling’ and ’empathetic experience’ during those long hours on the shop floor than any book could teach me.
Where did you learn the art of engagement?
Give me another P!
PEOPLE
Your people. Your staff. Your customers. The people that surround you in business. How have their own journeys impacted upon the way you differentiate your business?
The product engineers? The customer services team? You? How does the context in which your business was founded influence how I live my life?
YOUR TASK (BEYOND THE ACRONYM)
These are the 3 headlines for your next discussion on differentiation. Your natural born differentiators. Nothing to do with the product benefits or features. Nothing to do with budget or awards or price or buildings or colours or anything your competition can replicate.
Ask yourselves, how can we identify the way in which we can build Proposition, Experience and People into our content mindset. Then go create content that serves your customer well.
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