How having a Clear message for your company help’s you get more Prospects

The other day I was asked a question I hear all too often: “How do I distinguish myself from other coaches?”

To find the answer, I look to one of the most effective and frequently used marketing tools. It’s your “Unique Selling Proposition,” or USP.

(I prefer to call it a “Unique Selling Position.” If you’ve read Michael Fortin book, “Power Positioning,” then you’d know that I’m a big fan of positioning rather than prospecting.)

Your USP is also your “Clear message.”

Time and time again, I’ve told many aspiring clients and marketers that a USP is what distinguishes you from the pack. It increases perceived value, expertise, and credibility — without needing to state it outright.

But since I hear this question often, particularly from clients just coming to me, I sense that it’s because people need a little help in defining their USP.

So to help you, here’s a tip.

In marketing academia, they say that every product or service has three levels. They include:

• The core product.
• The product itself.
• The augmented product.

What does this have to do with developing a USP? Before I share it to you, let me explain what these three product levels mean.

• The core product is the actual end-result, the benefits, that the product offers. It’s what the product does for people. As Theodore Levitt once said, people don’t buy quarter-inch drills. They buy quarter-inch holes.
• The actual product is what the product is and consists of. This includes the things that make the product a product. Those are the features, the components, the ingredients, even the packaging.
• Finally, the augmented product is what is added to the product or offer to augment it. Things like free shipping, guarantees, customer support, premiums, etc.

Now, in the context of coaching, you can look at it this way (and this is just an example):

1) Core Product:

Generate and/or increase response.

2) Actual Product:

The results.

The Coaching process is measured by results, from the client’s belief system to helping your client’s discover their life’s purpose. From the first meeting until the last, goal after goal has been reached with the coach’s help.

It also includes the market you’re selling to, such as focusing on a specific industry or audience, or a particular kind of client such as Doctor’s or Lawyer’s.

3) Augmented Product:

Whatever you add above and beyond the actual product.

Extras, value-adds, add-ons, bonuses, premiums, and additional things, which can vary tremendously from client to client, and industry to industry.

How do you use these three layers to define a USP?

Think of these three layers in the form of a bulls-eye, where you have three concentric circles. The center of the bulls-eye being the core product, the middle layer being the actual product, and the outer layer the augmented product.

Now, to develop a unique selling proposition, you can add, remove, change, or give a unique twist to any of these three levels.

The easiest way, of course, it to go from the outside in. That is, find ways to augment your product that few do or that no one does. It may not be one single thing. It may be a combination of them.

(Why is this the simplest way? Because coming up with different angles or variations of the center of the bulls-eye requires a bit more creative thinking. Mind you, developing a USP from within usually produces the best “Clear message,” to most prospects, and the greatest perceived value.)

Nevertheless, here’s an example of working with the outside layer: you can offer telephone consultation instead of office visit, suggestions, taping the call for his play back to help him be more clear on what the client stated that would in, additional tips on how to best use the information, offer free consultation, and so on.

Here’s an extra tip.

Don’t offer these willy-nilly. Always place a value on these augmented elements or add-ons. Why? Because if you don’t, people will assume that it’s part of your original offering. It may even decrease your perceived value.

The idea is to increase the perception of higher value. And to do that, you must not only add value to the core offer but also make it visible.

For example, don’t say your coaching comes with unlimited phone calls. Say you will throw in unlimited email and layout suggestions, which are additional services, free of charge.

Plus, add a dollar value on those add-ons as if you were to sell them separately. Don’t say your coaching comes with unlimited emails. Say your coaching comes with an unlimited emails, free of charge, worth $500.

(Aside from the increase in value perception, this tactic also helps to prevent freeloaders and deal-seekers from asking for concessions before, during, and after the project, because they feel you’re already making some.)

Next in the layers is the actual product. What can you change, add, or remove from the actual product so that it makes you unique?

For instance, how do you conduct your research? Do you interview the client or the client’s staff? Do you have a preparatory questionnaire they must fill-out before work commences? How is your coaching do you provide written helper and how do you delivered?

While it is easier to work with the augmented product first, there is also an easy way to work with the middle layer. Which is, of course, niche marketing. It’s to focus on a particular audience, industry, or style of coaching.

You could be a coach specializing in, say, doctors. You could even hone it down to, say, private and staff no more than 50 people. You could even be a coach who focuses on business owner and self employed people exclusively.

But don’t just focus on industries or niches.

Remember, it’s the "actual" results. What you choose to work on and deliver can also be specialized. You don’t have to add or change anything, either. You can simply remove something to make yourself unique.

In fact, offering less or focusing strictly on a certain type of client can create instant demand and credibility, because being a specialist creates the perception of greater expertise and skill.

For example, you might be a coach who focuses strictly on internet marketing. As a result, you become known as the internet marketing expert. When people (or other coaches) need help with their interne marketing, they turn to you.

Or you might be one who only focuses on women business owner’s. While that might seem like a lesser offering, you can say that this is a benefit since you’re entirely focused on the research and the content — unlike other coaches who offer too much, overextend themselves, and dilute their value as a result.

A neurologist is still a doctor. But you wouldn’t have a general practitioner work on your brain, right? You want a doctor who specializes in the specific problem or area that needs attention.

Coaches are no different.

I know some coaches who specialize strictly in software developer coaching, or financial industry. And they’re doing quite well.

Finally, the innermost layer, the center of the bulls-eye, is the hardest part.

Coaching is coaching. And coaching has one principal function. But let’s say that your coaching’s goal is to increase the client’s life, as it is with most coaching. Ask yourself, what other benefits do you offer?

I don’t mean additional benefits provided by the augmented product. I’m talking about the coaching itself. What else does your coaching do for your clients? What else does your coaching service specifically bring to the table?

Sure, the ultimate goal is to boost quality of life, sales, and profits.

But perhaps it’s to make the client look good as to increase referral clients. Maybe it’s to increase visibility or generate more word-of-mouth. Or perhaps it’s to attract qualified staff or potential investors.

You can and should think of all the benefits your coaching delivers.

Don’t just stick with the obvious.

Take some time (even write a list, if you have to) of all the advantages your specific coaching offers. What kind of results have you achieved in the past? What other benefits (including unsought benefits) did your clients receive?

(Sometimes, asking for or re-reading client testimonials can offer some clues. If not, take some time to interview some of your past clients. Ask them what your coaching did for them, beyond just increasing life.)

Here are some real-world examples copywriter.

David Garfinkel is an excellent copywriter. He may label himself as a copywriter, but he is also known as “The World’s Greatest Copywriting Teacher” by his peers. That’s his USP.

Speaking of “Clear message”, another top copywriter, my friend John Carlton, is a master at finding “Clear message.” for his clients. That’s his “Clear message.”

Brian Clark, also known as “The Copy Blogger,” publishes one of the most prolific blogs on the Internet. The reason is obvious: Brian focuses on writing copy for blogs. That’s his shtick.

Michael Stelzner is an excellent copywriter, too. But his focus is on writing for white papers, including reports, newsletters, and collateral materials. That’s his expertise.

While Tom Chandler deals mostly with corporate clients, he is the expert on something he calls engagement copywriting, which is copy that’s meant to engage the reader and encourage interaction. That’s his specialty.

(On the topic of hooks, Tom is also a rabid fly fisherman.)

What about you?

Again, you need to take some time to really think about this. It might not come overnight — for me, as an example, it took over a decade to find the various benefits my coahing specifically brings to the table.

The difference is, you have a leg up because I’m letting you know about this now so you can work on it right away — without having to wait and learn it all by yourself, like I did.

In the end, there are so many ways to develop a good USP. There are so many variants. The idea is to be a bit creative, a bit of a contrarian, and a bit different — not necessarily a whole lot.

Just by being 10% different, unique, original, or special is enough to make you stand out like a sore thumb in an overcrowded, hypercompetitive marketplace.

Michael Frazier, Success Coach, brings innovative and refreshing change to the Coaching field. He assists clients in designing and implementing a successful business plan or fulfilling life. Visit www.mikefrazierlive.com to enlist his resources.