The Essential Thing You Must Be Able to Articulate to Your Customers
If you want your business to stand out, you have to actually know what it is about you that stands out.
Embarrassing Question
Here’s a question you might not want to think about:
If I asked your customers to tell me what was unique about working with you (or buying your products), what would they answer?
I’m going to venture a guess that, for the vast majority of us, the answer a customer might give about working with us is probably not the answer we’d want to hear. It should go without saying that that’s a problem, and we should probably fix that!
Understanding Our Unique Selling Feature
I don’t care who you are, what you do or who you do it for, there is something unique (or dang well ought to be) about what you do that you should be capitalizing on.
If you can’t articulate clearly and simply what your unique selling feature is, do not expect your customer to be able to do the same.
Don’t worry though: all hope is not lost. We can figure out what’s unique about us, and it’s likely not even as difficult as you think.
What is Not Unique
If your answer to “What is unique about me?” is any of the following, I slap thee on the wrist:
“We have amazing customer service.”
“I always deliver the product / service on time and up to standards.”
“I’m always happy and cheerful when I interact with customers.”
“I do it better than the competition.”
“I offer a more competitive price.”
All of those things are expectations the customer already has of you. They are not unique. Those are literally the exact same “unique” selling features your competitors use.
What Unique Features Actually Are
Here are a handful of unique selling features that could actually be unique about you:
Your previous work history (whether within the same industry or outside of it)
Your final product (may have different components or outcomes)
Your technique or process
Your unique understanding of the problem beneath the problem
Your speed of service (if it is objectively 2x or more faster than the other guys)
Your collaboration (with the customer or with other industry peers)
Your resources (Maybe you have access to information or tools no one else does)
Your expansive knowledge on all aspects of the customer’s life
Your chosen customer base (that benefit the most from what you offer)
Your way of combining two seemingly-unrelated things into 1 awesome thing
Of course, there are plenty of other things that could be on this list.
Your homework is to reflect on all of those bullets (including whatever other ones come to mind) and actually hone in on the ones that few of your competitors have.
The More Unique, The More Revenue
The more of those unique selling features you can combine, exploit, sell, work into your process or final outcome, or articulate to the customer, the more you have the opportunity to charge more for what you do.
How do most people price their services? They look at what their competitors charge and go slightly lower than that. That’s all fine and dandy… until it isn’t.
Instead, the more stuff you do that your competitors don’t do at all, the more you can charge because they become less and less of a competitor.
“Sure, my competitor does X, but I do X, Y, and Z.”
And it’s not just about stuffing your product full of artificial crap; but it’s about finding a truly innovative way to break the mold.
If You Can’t Hide It, Show It Off
I had a wood shop teacher in Grade 9 that taught me, “If you can’t hide it, show it off.” This is phenomenal life and business advice (and woodworking).
You might’ve heard, “It’s not a bug; it’s a feature.” Same idea.
Your goal is to not be shy about what is unique about you—even if it is a somewhat unconventional feature—but lean into it and present it with confidence.
You Can’t Be All Things to All People
If you were racking up your list of unique selling features and finding that you wanted to include something so your business could appeal to everyone, you should stop that immediately and take a more cut-throat look at your list.
A business that specializes in everything specializes in nothing.
By the very definition of being unique, it means you exclude stuff that is not unique. Therefore, you aren’t equipped to service clients that want a generic product. But that’s a win-win anyways, because you don’t want to work with generic customers.
It can feel uncomfortable to “exclude” people at first. I recommend having a backup service provider you can recommend in your place if they want something you aren’t prepared to give them. One of two things happens from there:
They waste the time of that competitor who provides a generic service; or
They see the light and accept your unique offering (and higher price).
No matter what, in that circumstance, you win.
