When you’re starting your business – any business – you need to think about why people should buy from you and what will make them want to buy from you rather than from anyone else.
This inevitably leads you – sooner or later – to the concept of the USP – the unique selling proposition.
Conventional wisdom states you must be different, unique even.
Most people selling expert services – that is consultancy or professional services – will assert that what they sell is difference.
“I do things differently.”
“I have a different approach.”
“I have a different training programme.”
What all of this means is that people are selling the same thing.
They are selling:
“I have my own approach to helping you, just like every one else has his or her own approach.”
In the end what’s different about that?
Selling difference – the truth
What you need to focus on is delivering unique and targeted outcomes.
For example, I launched a new programme called:
Social Media For Your Business
this week.
There are lots of programmes on social media. There are lots of different ways of approaching social media.
I acknowledge that. I make capital out of that.
I’m selling a unique and individual solution to each client. That solution will be tailored. That solution will be exactly what the customer wants. That’s the USP. What’s more, we’ll define the unique outcomes that the client wants in the initial meeting.
Put yourself in the client’s shoes. There is nothing more unique than something that is designed individually for me.
Starting your consulting business – a challenge
When you’re first starting your consulting business, it’s easy to think that you don’t have much collateral and that you don’t have the material you need to offer the right programmes and services.
If you’re building individually crafted programmes, then you don’t need to think about what you’re doing in quite the same way. You are looking for the right mix of support in each and every case. You are crafting a new product each time you engage with a client.
Make it good.
Make it valuable.
Make it work.
Help your clients to succeed.
That’s the best USP you can have.
Perhaps you’re on the wrong track when you’re thinking about a unique selling proposition. How about spending more time on the unique – and relevant – buying proposition?
This is the fourth tip in a series of one hundred tips for individuals starting a consulting business.
Take a look at the: Social Media For Your Business programme to see how unique this programme is – especially in what it delivers.
If you like this approach to thinking about your unique selling or buying proposition, then leave a comment.
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About Margaret Adams
