Tweet

What's Your Value to Prospects?

Guest post by: Kendra Lee

Article Overview: As sellers, we know that one of the keys to opening doors with new prospects lies in positioning our solutions as something different from the competition. In fact, sales and marketing departments spend a significant amount of time trying to determine exactly what their company's unique selling proposition is, and the best way to explain it to potential clients. But is it possible there's more to the equation?

What's Your Value to Prospects?

As sellers, we know that one of the keys to opening doors with new prospects lies in positioning our solutions as something different from the competition. In fact, sales and marketing departments spend a significant amount of time trying to determine exactly what their company's unique selling proposition is, and the best way to explain it to potential clients. But is it possible there's more to the equation?

What many sales reps don't realize is that they have another competitive advantage, and one that no one else can match: their own skills, talents, and expertise.

There are some prospects you are uniquely suited to serve simply because of who you are and what you know.

Most often, this is because of experience you have solving problems for similar clients. For example, if you know all about the business and technical challenges a small doctor's office encounters when trying to upgrade their phone system, then doesn't that make you more valuable to other companies who are in the same position?

Your history of having navigated similar situations makes you invaluable.

Think about it this way.

There are any number of business challenges that the majority of your customers might be facing now. They could be struggling with limited growth potential in their region, high turnover on their staff, or unreliable computer networks in key areas of their business.

Your prospects are probably struggling with the same issues.

The fact that you know and understand the impact of these problems on your prospects' business means that you can help guide them in their analysis of their situation. You can offer insights for their consideration, and ultimately guide them toward better decisions.

But first you have to gain access, get past the cold call and prospecting email. You have to get the conversation started.

A lot of sales people rely on their unique selling proposition and begin a cold call or email by talking about solutions. They think that's their value. But how do you know whether the solutions you're mentioning are the right ones for that specific prospect?

In reality, you can't be certain.

So, instead of going into what I call a "solutions dump," why not begin by discussing what you know best and they value most: the issues you suspect they're grappling with and how you've seen other similar companies deal with them.

Leverage your expertise from the work you've done with customers just like your prospects.

It's a subtle change, but one that can make a big difference to your prospect - especially when he or she may not have figured out exactly how to approach a big hairy problem.

Let's say that you're prospecting into law firms. You have 4 other attorneys' offices as customers and know that keeping their client information secure is critical to them. You've seen each office approach the issue a little differently and ultimately solve it by working with you.

You can probably talk all day long about the risk your customers felt, how they changed their business processes, how they raised employees' awareness of their concerns, what they did to solve them and more. And if you have the information, you can even get specific and mention how similar law firms improved staff productivity by 8% or cut their computer network costs by 7%.

As you're prospecting, your unique selling proposition isn't a security solution. It's your knowledge of how four other law firms solved the problem of keeping their client information secure.

Now your USP emphasizes your personal experience, making prospects want to speak with you. They'll value the opportunity to tap into your expertise and help them figure out their ideal solution to the issue. And when you're looking to separate yourself from the competition, your expertise and knowledge are the very best value your company has to offer.

Related Articles
  For Good SEO You Must Go Back To Basics
  Powerful Relationship Selling
  Getting to your North Pole
  FRANCHISE SELLING TIPS: # 2
  How to close the sale
  Attitude always win over knowledge
  You Cant Serve Everybody so Disqualify Most
  What’s So Little About the Small Business Government Loan In Canada ! SBL Guaranteed Financing
  Marketing Has Left the Building
  Considering Canadian equipment leasing ? What Leasing Companies Offer The Best Equipment financing
  Canadian ABL Lending - True Success In Banking and An Asset Financing Loan
  Business To Business Financing And Financial Factoring – Whats It It For Me?
  Summertime Blues
  End Your Canadian Franchise Lending Worries – Financing & Funding Lenders & Solutions For You !
  What Type Of Start Up Business Financing Loans Are Available For A Canadian Company ? Startup Loan Info
  How To Close More Sales
  PLANNING FOR SUCCESS – PART 4 – CLARITY/SO WHAT?
  It’s the Holidays!
  Sales Competencies and Your Competition
  Get The Lowest & Best Accounts Receivable Financing Loan Rates In Canada – Factoring Demystified!

Article Tags: selling proposition, unique selling, unique selling proposition



Related Forum Posts
Re: Hello from a San Diego-based marketer - Welcome Aaron! Whats the next stage for your business? Ben
Re: New, young entrepreneur - Congrats H20ismyLife! Do you have a website so we can see any of your work? Whats the next step for you?
Re: Email Etiquette - [quote="jvprosperity":24jznj58] The P.S. suggestion is good but it depends on the type of communication (e.g. Autoresponder series verses one off emails to Clients or Prospects)[/quote:24jznj58] Andy, You are right. I was mainly referring to Auto Responder emails. To end a normal email, I attach signatures. Takuya
Simple way to avoid Cold Calling - Gary, A chiropractor I work with hates cold calling (me too!) and he uses a technique to warm people up to using his services - it's so simple! In Sales your dealing with 3 pools of people: 1. Strangers 2. Prospects 3. Returning Customers You need to move people from one pool to the next. We'll concentrate on #1 and #2 as it's most relevant to your question. My Clients does the following (you just have to tailor it to your situation - be creative). My Client (we'll call him Bob) Bob leverages his time and resources to only get people that need his offer (pain relief) to put their hand up. Dealing with Strangers can get expensive and they don't like to be told what to do as they have no trust or relationship built with him. So to get Strangers to put their hands up he writes up an offer with a free report on a particular pain relief - let's say lower back pain (note: he can simply just change lower back pain to neck pain and have a new report). and uses multiple marketing vehicles to promote the Free report - magazines, newspaper, forums, postcards, private clinics etc. The only people picking up this information are the very people Bob would like as customers as they have Lower back pain. Bob's Free report ends with him stating his services and includes a Free in-house Consultation with no obligation. You'd be surprised at how easily Bob converts Strangers into Prospects. Note: They become prospects when they ask for the Free Guide and in exchange provide their contact details. This gives Bob unlimited opportunity to contact them for the Free in-house consultation with no obligation to continue using him. At this stage Bob's ability to close the sale lies in his office providing good customer service, Bob's ability to help the prospect and provide value at the free in-house consultation. Notice, he hasn't had to pick up the phone to COLD-CALL his Stranger pool or his Prospect pool. Hope that example helps to increase your prospecting!
Pitch Like A Girl: How a Woman Can Be Herself and Still Succ - Pitch Like A Girl: How a Woman Can Be Herself and Still Succeed Ronna Lichtenberg 2005 From the inside cover: "As a woman, you probably feel uncomfortable when it comes to promoting yourself and asking for what you want." WHAT IN THE HECK IS THIS, I asked myself when I read that. Women are the fastest growing business owners in the US and Canada, there are t housands of women executives and CEOs - though not as many as might be expected, admittedly, yet the book opens with this surely out of date stereotype. However, as she continued to give examples of women who had high paying jobs but were routinely not paid as much as men because it hadn't occurred to them to ask for raises, etc., I decided it was probably true for a majority of businesswomen... Anyway, more of the info from the jacket: "Other books have told you how to get what you want by being more like a guy. Pitch Like A Girl tells you why its an advantage to be who you are and how to do better by bringing more of yourself to work." The TOC: 1. Pink and Blue 2. The Quck-dry Chapter 3. What's In your head that's not in his 4. The Me, Inc Mindset 5. Visioning: Discover What You Really Want 6. Identifying Prospects 7. Pre-pitch homework and heartwork 8. Crafting the pitch 9. Pricing the pitch 10. Packaging the pitch 11. Delivering the pitch 12. Closing Conclusion A Word to the guys The Empathy Quotient The Systemizing Quotient Bibliography And on a side note - non-fiction books without indexes - of which this is one, annoy me.


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Igniting Your Unstoppable Business Destiny

Tips to Take Control of Credit Card Debt

The Importance of Master Data Management (MDM)

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.