Testing Your Unique Selling Proposition

Marketing, Unique Selling Proposition No Responses »
Jun 172010

Despite how frequently this term is bandied about I am convinced that most people don’t really understand what a Unique Selling Proposition is.

I recommend to anyone that is interested in marketing or sales to read “Monopolize Your Marketplace” by Richard Hershaw. This is a fantastic book on marketing and how to tell your story in a compelling way.

If you have an elevator pitch, website, or any other marketing materials I would suggest you ask the following question of your selling proposition.

Could the competition make this same claim?

For example, the claim “We are the best XYZ company in Texas!” since there is not ultimate authority you will find many claiming they are the best. This claim is not a unique selling proposition as it is NOT unique.

Whatever the claim in your proposition it must be unique to you and something the competition can’t say. The way you do this is by talking about things that are specific to your business such as “Our clients average a 38% increase in revenues in the first 60 days under our program.

Make sure your selling proposition is unique.

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The First Step of the Marketing Process is to Interrupt

LinkedIn Marketing, Marketing, Social Media, Web Marketing 6 Responses »
Jun 152010

Interrupting the prospect is the first step in marketing and you could also say sales especially when discussing cold calling.

Interrupting or getting the attention of the prospect is the usually function of the headline or the value proposition in selling. The job of the headline is, and I quote Eugune M. Schwartz’s great book “Breakthrough Advertising here:

“Your headline has only one job—to stop your prospect and compel him to read the second sentence of your ad.”

It is obvious of course that if you don’t get the reader’s attention, if you cannot get them to read about your offer, you will not get their business.

Typically attention is gotten by stating something that is: familiar or connected to the reader, something unusual, strange, unusual, or abnormal, or by things that are threatening, dangerous, or problematic.

Any good marketing piece must start buy getting the prospects attention or interrupting them. This goes for a website, a brochure, a cover letter, or your LinkedIn or other social media profile.

Learn the art of interruption and you will earn the right to tell your story. This is actually the key to cold calling in sales and most certainly a key factor in on line marketing.


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