Small Business Marketing: The one question no one asks, but you'd better answer

Unless you’re selling water in the desert, there’s one question everyone who’s reading your sales letters wants to know.

They want to know why they should buy this stuff from YOU.

In other words, what makes YOU different from the next guy selling this… or from the guy your prospect just heard from, right before you?

What makes you different, or unique from the rest?

Some people refer to your answer to this question as a USP (As in, “What is your Unique Selling Proposition?”)

And admittedly, this isn’t always an easy question to answer.

So today I want to give you some insight on how to figure out what makes you “different.”

Frankly, there are lots of ways, but the most important thing to remember, is to avoid being a commodity.

See, whenever you’re a commodity, people only have one thing to talk about – price.

If you’re selling something a million other people sell, you might be fooled into thinking the best way to be different is to be the cheapest guy in town.

But this only makes you different until the next guy who thinks he’s smarter than you, decides to undercut your prices.

This is a bottomless strategy that has no winning — only degrees of loss.

You have to “be” more than just your product or service.  You can’t be like everyone else, otherwise no one’s going to have a specific reason to do business with you.

This is a great topic and it’s one I can discuss for hours, but obviously we don’t have that kind of time, so let me give you three simple things you can do to be different.  If you’re clever, some of these can remove you from the ‘commodity’ situation, as well.

1.  Guarantee as much as you can.

And… give multiple guarantees for every aspect of your services or products, where ever your buyers perceive there is risk.

2.  Serve ONE section of the marketplace only.

Or, serve multiple sections but use different marketing for each one.

This can be done by gender… demographics… culture… affluence… style… or even business philosophy.

This is a great way to be different and it’s least likely to be stolen from you.

3.  Create a sub-specialty within your area, and if possible, make it an important one.

For instance, within the category of direct-marketing consultants, I have a sub-specialty of copywriting.

And it doesn’t hurt that particular sub-specialty this takes any good marketing strategy you might be using… and amplifies it far beyond anything else.

But there again… you probably know this already, right?  :-)

Point is, be different, and be good.  Or just be good at being different.

Either way, you’ll be doing a lot better than everyone else.

Now go sell something,  Craig Garber

P.S.  Advanced copywriting workshop available NOW.

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About the Author

Craig GarberAuthor of "How To Make Maximum Money With Minimum Customers, " and publisher of Seductive Selling - an offline marketing newsletter currently read in 15 countries, world-wide. In a nutshell, I do two things: 1. I show you how to attract a reliable, steady stream of pre-qualified leads who are ready to do business with you NOW... 2. And I increase your net profits and cash-flow, by increasing your customer, client, or patient value -- often, dramatically. How do I do this? By developing, and helping you implement, unique, personalized lead generation and marketing strategies... using compelling sales messages that push your customers emotional buy-buttons. I've worked with over 300 clients in more than 104 different industries, since March of 2000, and I really enjoy what I do. I'm a stable, reliable, happily married family guy with three kids who loves life and always follows through on my commitments and promises. I love to listen to music, workout, read, travel with my family, take pictures, and go bass fishing. I always say "Yes," when it comes to good cigars, good books, and good coffee :-)

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