What is a USP?

If you don’t know the answer to this question, you’re business is in serious trouble! An entire book can be written on this subject (many have been).  Your “USP” is your “Unique Selling Perspective”.  In other words…Why is your business Unique?
What does your business possess that separates it from the rest of your competition?
Why should a customer buy from you instead of your competition?
What do you offer your customers that your competition doesn’t?

There’s a great article written by one of the best copywriters in the world that clearly puts the power of your USP into perspective, his name Dan Kennedy. Dan has written sales material for some of the largest fortune 500 companies in the world.  Why is Dan so successful?  He knows how to develop a client’s USP to pinpoint accuracy and capitalize on its amazing power.

If you’re going to be successful online, you need to learn more about how to develop a strong USP.  This one aspect of your business could determine your success or failure.

Here’s a good example….

Amazingly enough, a once failing pizza shop used the power of a strong USP to turn their struggling business into an empire.  They decided to become unique and capitalize on one specific aspect of their business that no one else had yet capitalized on.  Once they did, their profits soared!
Who is this pizza shop?  Domino’s Pizza.
How did they turn their business around?  With a simple, clever, slogan combined with a strong USP.

“Delivered Hot And Fresh In 30 Minutes Or Less… OR IT’S FREE!”

The young owner of Domino’s Pizza didn’t capitalize on fresh ingredients, the ripest tomatoes, 5 different cheeses, or special offers. Everyone else was already doing that!  This college student realized where the need was and hammered home his simple message!  What did folks want from a pizza place?
They wanted their pizza FAST!  This simple slogan and USP alone turned a once failing business into a MEGA MILLION DOLLAR FRANCHISE!

If you really want to discover how to develop a USP for your business, you must read Dr. Ken Envoy’s eBook, Make Your Site Sell, widely recognized as the Bible for Selling Online.  Dr. Envoy is a master at his craft and over-delivers on every one of his e-books. He’s propelled his business into one of the most visited sites online.

Find Your Unique Selling Perspective

Success

As buyers, we demand social proof. Only a small percentage of the population gets excited about being the first to try something new.  That’s why there is no more effective salesperson than an existing customer. Getting your customers to testify, in the market is money in the bank! How to get testimonials

Often, new business owners will struggle getting these all-important testimonials. Or at least good ones that are effective selling tools.

Here are three ways to get them, by asking for them.

1. After you’re finished delivering on your promises, you approach your customer & say something like this.

‘Are you happy with your purchase? If yes, you continue, ‘I was wondering if you’d do me a favour & just write me a brief note about your experience, in particular the part about _________, and ___________.’

These blanks are critically important. You need testimonials that are specific. And you need them to reflect your Unique Selling Proposition, so that when you use them in your marketing, they reinforce your sales message as powerfully as possible. So what’s your USP?

Now, if your customer is happy, you will almost always get a positive response when you ask for a testimonial. But if you stop there, you will always wait & wait for your all important ’social proof’, until even you have forgotten about it.

You MUST take this one additional step.

Immediately after your customer agrees to give you a testimonial, you say. ‘I know you’re busy, would you mind if I were to write the letter for you, & then give it to you for editing before your assistant puts it on your letterhead, & gives it back to me? 97% of the time you will have the testimonial of your dreams within a week.

2. You can offer gifts to customers who will take the time to provide you with a testimonial. Be careful with how you word this though.

You do not want to give the impression that you are giving gifts in exchange for the testimonials themselves.

You are simply compensating your customers for their time, you are coaxing out testimonials.
You are giving people an opportunity to express themselves without putting themselves out.

3. You can get third party testimonials from industry experts, sometimes called ‘endorsements’.

This is particularly effective, & surprisingly easy.

Here’s how it works.

You find your expert, and you buy something from them.
You can even do this by just participating in the front end of their marketing efforts. Either way, here’s what you do.

You send them an honest testimonial that is acutely targeted to supporting their USP.
And under your signature, you say. PS, You are interested in ___________. I was wondering if you would be so kind as to accept one of our ________, for your personal use, without charge. It will help you to __________. If you like it, it would mean a lot to me if you would give me your opinion of it.

You will be amazed by the responses you get with this simple yet highly effective approach. The real class acts will respond to you, and when you set it up this way, they will know exactly what you are after. If you have a good product, you’ll get what you need fast.

Remember this. People love to give advice. They love to offer their opinion. It makes them feel important. As a last thought why not leverage some of your better commentators from your blog, as long as you approach each individual with courtesy and use the points outlined above then you might be pleasantly pleased with the response.

Im’ sure there are many other ways, including paid for testimonials but for me I think the honest approach is the best.

What are your thoughts on this subject? Please feel free to comment.

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