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âWhat is your USP (Unique Selling Proposition)?â
All of a sudden, it felt like sub-zero temperature on the Skype call. The sales prospect had said it with a childlike curiosity. But, I imagined him mocking me while blowing smoke circles in the air after taking a big puff from his cigar.
Itâs not anything new. Iâve been in front of the sales prospects for more than a decade now and this is the question that I get asked more often than not.
I should know how to handle it by now but it always hits me in the face. My reaction has been the same over the yearsâââmy forehead furrows in consternation, my lips curl to a benign frown, my tongue develops knots and I feel a cold chill running down my spine.
But like any other self respecting person who doesnât indulge in things that make them uncomfortable, I saidââââSure, with pleasure. Let me explain.â.
Ahh, I lie. I didnât say that. How could I?
You see, I fail to understand whatâs a Unique Selling Proposition anyway? And how can a product design and development services company have a USP? Is it even technically possible to research the global technology market and claimâââhere is what makes us unique.
AhhâŠthe spins that we sell in Sales.
Let me share with you some of the most âFrequently Usedâ phrases in peopleâs definition of USPÂ -
âOur people make our company unique and you canât get the service they provide, in the way they provide it, anywhere else.â
*slow claps*Â .
Like other service companies are hiring designers and engineers aliens from Andromeda.
What kind of company would line up their recruiting group and sayââââHey John, change in strategyâââwe are going to hire the most mediocre talent out there. We have got loads of customers lined up for our service and I donât want to disappoint them by hiring great talentâ.
Think about itâââevery company tries to hire great talent. Shouldnât you enunciate more about what makes your people different from others?
Our USP is that we are leaders in <stuff your hyperbole here, like R&D>
I have no frigginâ idea what that means. Leaders? How? By the number of technology solutions built? By the number of customers? By geographic locations that you serve? By revenue? By the number of GitHub projects? By the number of dribbble followers?
Often itâs so vague that it becomes laughable.
If you think you are a leader, share some data. Show the difference you have made. Otherwise, itâs best to hold your silence. Because, you know, true leaders never need to announce themselves.
Our USP is lowest rates with the best quality
I bet you have heard this a lot many times- âWe are Cheap and Best. You wonât get a price lower than that in the market.â Every time I hear that as a USP from a company, it makes me want to say in Al Pacino style from ScarfaceâââSay that again. One more time. Slowly.
Let that thought of âBest Quality with Lowest Ratesâ sink in your head. If it hasnât then I would encourage you to eat at McDonaldâs every night. Itâs a high quality dining restaurant with low rates. And did I share that it chokes your arteries for free?
Our USP is our deep expertise in <throw that elusive buzzword you just learnt from internet>
And everybody out there is faking it? The rest of the world is just there for the lark of it, voluntarily making a S.M.A.R.T goal to stay mediocre and not develop any expertise?
Firstly, using the word âdeepâ with expertise is superfluous because by definition, expertise means deep knowledge. Secondly, which company would not develop expertise in their core area? Thatâs akin to professional harakiri.
Do you get my drift?
Iâm not sure about you but my logical brain generally doesnât have honest to God answers for âWhat is your USP?â question. Not because our company isnât great but Iâve not researched all the technology service companies around the Globe to share the answer. Truthfully.
The sad truth is that the USP question gets asked so much while selecting the right technology services partner , especially by bigger companies, that after a while it looks like you are incomplete without having an over the top response to that.
What is even more sad , and makes me feel like a terrible terrible hypocritical douchebag, is that sometimes I succumb to pressure. I cave-in and share âhow we are differentâ points decorated in shiny well-aligned bullet points on a slide, while not having a frigginâ clue if Iâm telling the truth.
That saidâââwhat if the USP, in context of technology services company, really stood for (Our) Undying Services Proposition.
Now, I can get behind that. Truthfully.
I can say that we would work with you like partners. We would try to be seemingly transparent. We would put our best work out there. And, you know what, I donât doubt that we wouldnât have our share of fuck ups but we would deal with those failures openly. Bottom lineâââwe would make sure that our success is truly tied to yours and we wouldnât stop short of anything to make that true, come hell or high water.
*sigh*
Iâm not sure how appealing my services proposition would appear to prospects as it doesnât have the buzzwordsââââLeaders in thisâ, âExperts at thatâ kind of hyperbole. But I think that it might give them an idea about our focus, how we would treat them and our core values.
Does it work? I donât know. If it did then we would have been the Leaders in product design and development by now, *wink*
Thus, my predicament is how does one change the age-old sales traditions that donât make sense anymore? I seriously donât have a clue. But I would definitely be interested to know your side of story.
How do you define your USP to your clients as a product design and development agency?
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Why Am I Done Talking About USP was originally published in Hacker Noon on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
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