This week, I would like to talk to you about your unique selling points (USPS), because a USP should answer all of the following three questions: ‘Why should I choose you?’, ‘What problem are you going to solve for me today?’ and ‘What guarantees do I have?’ Now, when you think about a USP, most people come up with one of the following three ideas, and they’re all wrong.
The first one is ‘We’ve got great customer service’ – brilliant, that’s the least I would expect from any company I chose to do business with. You should all have great customer service. That’s not the USP. The second one is ‘We really care about our customers’ – rubbish. No you don’t. If you really care about your customers, tell me what it is you’re going to do to show that you care about your customers. And the third one is ‘If you see our prices cheaper anywhere else, we’ll match it’ – so you’re the cheapest. If you’re going to win a customer on price, you’re going to lose a customer on price. And if you’re billing yourself as the cheapest, can you imagine the kind of customers and clients you’re going to get that are only interested in price?
Now, coming up with a USP is difficult, so I’m going to give you an example of a great USP. Does anybody remember the USP of Domino’s Pizza when they first launched? No? It was ‘Fresh hot pizza to your door in 30 minutes or less or it’s free’. Fresh, hot pizza to your door, in 30 minutes or less, or it’s free. That answers all three of the questions that your USP should answer: ‘Why should I choose you?’ ‘What problem are you going to solve for me today?’ and ‘What guarantees do I have?’
Now, Domino’s Pizza didn’t talk about their great recipes, or how delicious their pizza was, because anybody could say that. They didn’t talk about how long they’ve been making pizza, because nobody cares. Nobody cares how long you’ve been doing what you’ve been doing. Nobody cares what experience you’ve got. Nobody cares how skilled you are. All they care about – and this is going to sound quite blunt – all they care about is themselves. What are you going to do for them? That’s all that matters.
That’s why you need to get your USPs in place, because it’s doubly important within BNI. When somebody refers you, if they know what your USP is, they know how to refer you, so that somebody else doesn’t get the referral. And that’s especially important in a competitive industry where there’s a member in every chapter, like an accountant, an IFA, or IT. In every BNI chapter, there’s somebody in there for those categories, so you need to know what makes you different. So this week, I’d like you to think about your USPS, and if they don’t answer each of those three questions, then you need to think of another one. Thank you.