What makes your accounting firmdifferent

Your Unique Value Message

You’re DIFFERENT Because…

your business unique value message is what makes your business different“Unique Selling Proposition”, or USP,  is so 20th century.

That’s because it’s focused on you – selling is what YOU do. And what your customers hate.

The trick in our brave new world of internet-empowered customers and prospects is to not sell to them – make them buy from you instead.

This is a parallel to the online maxim that the goal today isn’t to find buyers online, but to have them find you.

Start With Unique

You do this by virtue of the compelling and free educational content you supply them online – only some of which is about your products and/or services.

And all of that – your entire online presence (which better be a lot more than a measly website) – should be infused with your big differentiator…the one thing that sets you apart from all your competitors.

Maybe it’s something no one else in your industry even does.

Or maybe it’s something you do at another level altogether because of your…(fill in the blank).

Whatever it is – and just claiming to have “better quality” won’t cut it anymore – make sure it’s legit and consistently delivered. Promising something exceptional that you can’t deliver – without fail – is worse than never promising it in the first place.

Much worse.

Add Big VALUE

This is what makes them find you – and BUY from you.

And it must have real value for your customers and prospects – which may have nothing to do with what it actually costs. It’s the perceived value in your prospects’ eyes that matters here. It could just be changing your hours of operation so they’re far more convenient than your competition – like some banks are doing in defiance of  traditional “bankers’ hours” that don’t often square with their customers’ convenience.

The actual dollar  value of such a change may be minimal, but its perceived value could be huge – a real differentiator.

So adding value isn’t synonymous with adding cost. Indeed, cutting costs is often the best way to increase value for customers by eliminating steps that may unnecessary and cumbersome for them. This is why we advise making cost savings analysis an integral part of developing your business strategy and UVM – because a leaner operation can itself prove a valuable asset and added value for your customers.

Message It Consistently

If your added value is real and substantial – as it must be – you should make it the centerpiece of all your marketing activities.

It should drive your reputation campaigns, your advertising campaigns, and become the fulcrum for leveraging referrals on a massive scale.

It’s who you are, damn it.

And it’s why your prospects shouldn’t give a second thought to doing business with anyone but you.

And by getting your message of added value in front of prospects early in their buying cycle, you remain top-of-mind when they get to the point that they’re ready to buy.

You need to respect their right to choose their own timing and adapt your messaging accordingly.

You may want them to buy right now – your sales  team certainly does. But if they’re just not ready yet, all you’ll do by pressing them is alienate them and send them looking for your competitors.

Sales and marketing that benefits your competitors is the definition of shooting yourself in the foot.

Ouch!

Positioning Your UVM

Indeed, a low-key and tasteful educational approach to your not-ready-to-buy prospects could become a part of your UVM, albeit implicit rather than explicit.

Although sometimes explicit works, too.car dealership handshake

Take Herb Chambers – one of the most astute car dealers in America.

He promotes his 55-dealership network in Massachusetts by taking out full-page ads in the biggest daily newspaper in the market with the headline…

“Don’t like car dealers?

Great. Neither do I.”

This clever twist makes him the un-cola of car dealers – turning the industry’s achilles heel into his big differentiator, his UVM.

Very smart stuff.

Finding Your UVM

Maybe you don’t have a UVM – or maybe you just don’t think you have one.

If that’s the case, you need to find one – create one anew if you must.

Your business won’t survive without one.

It’s the key to a future of higher prices, more referrals, and a strategic exit from your business on your own terms, timing, and conditions.

Your only alternative to finding and exploiting your UVM is to end up like 9 out of 10 businesses in America – out-of-business.

The columns we post in the Unique Value Message
section of the PeakProfitsAdvisors.com blog will
help you find your own UVM – if it’s MIA – and use it
to your maximum advantage.

And if you’d like more hands-on help with it,
hit us up on our contact page and we’ll see if we can help.

And to get your Free & No-Obligation
Tax Savings Estimate, click here.