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Differentiating Your Offer/Approach Via USF (Unique Selling Feature) Number One!

Differentiating your offer by the differing tangibles offered is a hallmark trait of veteran successful sales professionals. Marketing has found that an organization or person can differentiate them self in a marketplace by examining their “Unique Selling Features/USF” aka Unique Selling Proposition. This is the first of two USF’s to be examined in our series.

“Unique Selling Feature/” USF #1 identifies:

  • All of the specific factors (tangibles and intangibles) that you offer and that your competition does not.
  • In essence the USF #1 is centering in on all of the things you offer, the “what” factors

Many times, in the market place a prospect/customer may have a really difficult time seeing the true differentiators or the “what” of your offer, as being genuinely different than “what” others offer. At this point in the prospect or existing customer (of a potential additional transaction) mindset, your offer may blend in to the sea of options being presented to them in the marketplace. Instead of standing out as the choice among options and offers, you are blending in if your USF is truly not unique.

While USF #1 (remember Unique ‘Selling’ Feature) is about four core variables in the consumer’s mind, what you do that is:

  • Better, then what they have now or is available in the marketplace, or
  • Faster, then what they have now or is available in the marketplace, or
  • Different, then what they have now or is available in the marketplace, or
  • Cost Effective, then what they have now or is available in the marketplace, or

Sales professionals must recognize the importance of being able to have a depth of knowledge on all of the unique things that they represent (in respect to the product or service they represent). Knowing all of the unique “what factors” allows the sales professional to have an informed, educated and conversational engagement with prospects/customers. And this is why it is critical to have comprehensive knowledge of your deliverable’s.

It is from a thorough understanding of the customers or prospects needs, which is the art and science of the needs analysis and interviewing phase, to be able to get the other person (B2B, B2C, C2C) to reveal their needs and match that to solutions you may possess.

If a sales professional has limited knowledge of the totality of “what factors” then they will miss many selling opportunities. Once the USF #1 are presented, this serves to grab the other person’s attention, but you must associate the corresponding BENEFIT of a presented USF to the other person, as it is the Benefits that motivate a person to become a buyer, facts alone do not compel a person to want to purchase with you.

For example, Burger King restaurant chain has differentiated itself for years in advertisements by using “USF #1”, when it says:

“Our burgers are _________________!”
This statement differentiates them in the sea of fast food hamburger options by communicating to the prospects/customers in their market place that if you want a hamburger then come to us. Our USF is better for you and different from other traditional fried market offerings!

Have you determined what goes in the space above? If not, try the saying and complete it with the USF words, “F-L-A-M-E B-R-O-I-L-E-D.”

As a sales professional, it is critical to know and your responsibility to know on a macro if not micro level:

  • The breath of deliverables you have to offer
  • The Unique Selling Features of each or the WHAT factors of each
  • Recognize what are the primary, secondary and tertiary facts or what factors around each deliverable
  • Understanding your primary secondary and tertiary competitor’s deliverables so you can differentiate between you and others in a meaningful manner when asked by a customer or prospect that may be considering multiple buying options
  • And from an effective conversational selling interact in determining through vetting questions what the customer or prospects needs are, then only present the most powerful and appropriate selling solution deliverable to them
  • Do not over-sell or present too many solutions, as this can overwhelm the other person and cause them to mentally disengage from the interaction
  • Ask yourself if you have a “Unique Selling Feature” that is stand alone and powerful as that USF jingle used for decades!

Differentiating your offer by the differing tangibles offered is a hallmark trait of veteran successful sales professionals. Always know what you are saying before you say it, so you speak meaningfully and directly to the other person’s needs.




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