Positioning: Deciding and Conveying Unique Selling Position

Sections of this topic

    Crafting Your Unique Selling Position: Mastering Positioning

    Sections of This Topic Include

    What is a Unique Value Proposition (and Unique Selling Proposition)?
    Your Best Elevator Pitch
    Various Perspectives on Unique Selling Propositions

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    What is a Unique Value Proposition (and Unique
    Selling Proposition)?

    Positioning includes identifying the unique market position, or “niche”,
    for your organization. Positioning is accomplished through market analysis.
    Market analysis includes finding out what groups of potential customers (or
    markets) exist, what groups of customers you prefer to serve (target markets),
    what their needs are, what products or services you might develop to meet their
    needs, how the customers might prefer to use the products and services, what
    your competitors are doing, what pricing you should use and how you should distribute
    products and services to your target markets.

    Various methods of market research are used to find out information about markets,
    target markets and their needs, competitors, etc. It’s very useful to articulate
    a “positioning statement” or “unique selling position,”
    which articulates what is unique about your organization and why people should
    buy from you, rather than from your competitors.

    Some people differentiate between the unique selling proposition and the unique
    value proposition. They assert that the former is focused on the value to the
    seller (it’s to sell a product or service). They assert that the latter unique
    is focused on the value to the customer — to the benefits or value that he
    or she will gain from using the product or service. They assert that the latter
    cultivates a more

    Your Best Elevator Pitch

    © Copyright Lisa
    Chapman

    How do you cut through the sheer marketing clutter and make your mark on your
    prospects’ minds? Create one distinct, memorable message that you use at every
    opportunity.

    Core Marketing Message

    Every business needs to distill their message down to an effective core marketing
    message that each employee can deliver comfortably at a cocktail party, and
    becomes the foundational message in company literature, videos; essentially,
    all advertising or promotion. It is also called your elevator pitch, and it
    focuses on solving your customer’s pain or problem.

    Info You Need to Prepare to Develop Your Elevator Pitch

    You can spend days or even weeks in this process, but we’re going to make it
    really easy for you. To get right down to the point, first answer these questions
    – IN WRITING:

    1. Profile your ideal target customer/customer. Include demographics and lifestyle
      choices.
    2. What PROBLEM, PAIN, or challenge does this target customer face?
    3. What SOLUTION does your product or service delivery for this problem or pain?
    4. What PROOF do you have, such as a customer success story?
    5. What makes you different from your competition? (It MUST be a difference
      that matters to your customer.

    How to Develop Your Elevator Pitch

    REMEMBER THIS: DO NOT start talking about your product or service and what
    you do. Read that sentence again. Instead, start talking about your customers
    and how you help solve their problems and ease their pain.

    Imagine that you’re asked, “What do you do?” Here’s how to respond:

    1. Start with who you work with; “I work with small business owners and entrepreneurs…”
    2. Continue by telling about their pain or problem; “…who need help taking
      their business to the next level…”
    3. PAUSE. WAIT FOR A QUESTION OR RESPONSE.
    4. Tell them about a customer you’ve worked with and the results you achieved;
      “…For example, I’ve worked with a 5-year-old family business that needed a
      business plan to raise money for expansion…”
    5. This could lead to more conversation about problems & solutions.
    6. Tell them your solution and what makes you different; “…we get very good
      results, and have been told by venture capital investors that our plans are
      among the best they’ve ever seen.”

    Now you have opened the conversation to focus on problems, and even if they
    can’t benefit, they may know someone who can!

    This approach is a natural to develop the company’s core marketing message
    for all advertising and promotion.

    Various Perspectives on Unique Selling
    Propositions

    Positioning
    Unique Selling
    Proposition

    A Complete Guide to Product Positioning
    Unique Selling Proposition

    Small Business Marketing
    The
    Luxury Brand Effect: Should BMW Sell Ketchup?

    Your
    Best Elevator Pitch

    The key to your introductions is a Unique Value Proposition
    Setting
    Yourself Apart — Unique Selling Proposition


    For the Category of Marketing:

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