USP – your best sales armour

What you’re selling should be unique. Otherwise why will the consumer buy your product and not your competitor’s? Scary thought for a salesman, right? 

 Whenever you’re selling to a client, you have to demonstrate the value you’re delivering along with the product. But before we get to the USP, we need to understand our product and services thoroughly.

Knowing your products and services

Product knowledge is an essential sales skill. Understanding your products' features allows you to present their benefits accurately and persuasively. Customers respond to enthusiastic sales staff who are passionate about their products and eager to share the benefits with them.

Get to know your products or services

Customers are more likely to trust sales people who show confidence in themselves and what they are selling. You can build this confidence by increasing your knowledge of your products or services.

Use conventional and creative sources of information to learn about your products or services, including:

• your own experiences using the products
• product literature such as brochures and catalogues
• online forums
• feedback from customers
• trade and industry publications
• internal sales records
• your team members
• visits to manufacturers
• sales training programs
• competitor information

Turn product features into benefits

As you engage customers, you can use your knowledge to lead your customer through the sales process, and make their experience an enjoyable one that they'll want to revisit.

Successful salespeople know all about their products' features and skillfully turn these features into benefits for their customers.

To practice this skill, list your product's features, potential benefits, and all information up front for your customers. Consider how you can communicate the potential benefits, for example   

Don’t get lost in the crowd. Here’s how you should determine your product’s USP. 

1. Understand what your competitors are selling. 

Run a search and compare your features and benefits with your direct competitors. Identify the benefits that set you apart.

2. Identify what specific need is being met by your product or service. 

What will your product do for the consumer? What pain point are you solving?

3.   Identify unique value addition points of your product or service that your competitors cannot provide. 

Your product or service might have solutions that are hard to replicate by your competitors. If your product or service has that, you have an easy edge over the rest.

For example: Let’s see how AirBnb is shaping the future of the travel industry with its USPs

• For those that can afford it, Airbnb offers the chance to stay in some aspirational, unique homes. It's already got one up on its hotel rivals. 
• Whatever your budget, you can guarantee that Airbnb will host a property that doesn't exceed your upper limit. 
• Anybody who has used Airbnb will know that, 99% of the time, upon arriving at a property, they'll be a note with instructions on where to find things, or a welcome message with the words "help yourself to food and drink" written on it. That's not something you will often find at a hotel.
• You can live like a local. It’s better than a night in a 'standard double bed room' or a 'superior double bed room'.

4. Write down the unique product features in short, clear, and concise sentences

You need to know your product inside out to be able to write this. These sentences should be simple enough for the consumer to understand and powerful enough to sell your product.

Let’s see what AirBnb writes to sell their business

Simple, isn’t it? Now try focusing on your product and write down what it does in short, simple sentences that highlights benefits to the consumer.

Key Takeaways

1. Find the USP to have an edge over your competitors

2. To identify the USP you need to have a thorough understanding of your product

3. Scan your competitors' products and services to understand how you can position your product 

Up Next

Now that we've understood the product, we need to know whom we're selling to. The next chapter will introduce you to the different kinds of people you'll meet during your sales stint.