How to build a brand that speaks volumes.

The foundation of all successful brands and their subsequent marketing campaigns is a strong, consistent message. But have you ever stopped to think about what your business is REALLY saying every time you make contact with customers or prospects?

Unfortunately, most businesses, before creating marketing materials and deciding upon their own marketing message, go and look at what other businesses in their industry are saying to customers. All this results in, is a glut of ‘same‐same’ marketing and an audience of confused consumers – none of whom can really see much difference between the businesses talking to them, other than variances in price.

While it’s good to keep abreast of what the competition is up to, copying their marketing message (even that of the market leader) is not going to do your brand any favours, nor will it guarantee success. Quite often, the opposite can be the case.

Ideally, you want your marketing to look and sound very different to your competition, so that customers and prospects have a clear idea of how doing business with you will be better for them.

Here are four proven ways to create a message that’s unique to you and designed to get results:

Quit being a copycat

List what other businesses in your industry are saying in their marketing messages and AVOID using these words/phrases yourself. For example, if everyone is telling customers they’ve been in business 20 years, are family owned, offer ‘great service’ and ‘free quotes’ etc. you should avoid bombarding your prospects with more of the same – how on earth will they know how to choose between 30 different businesses all touting the same message, other than to do a price comparison? This is NOT what you want – getting into price wars with your competitors is never going to set you apart as a market leader. Instead, see below on what you SHOULD be saying.

Be an individual

Make a list of what makes you DIFFERENT to your competition and use words/phrases like these instead (you could even put this list up in your staff room/breakout area so that employees are constantly reminded why your business is better). Customers should know straight away from your sales letters, yellow pages advertisements, website, radio ad or print ads why doing business with YOUR company is better. Prove that you’re different.

Know what they want

You have to know what your customers REALLY want, care about and aspire to, if you’re going to be able to create a marketing message that speaks to them in a way that will engage them, inspire them and motivate them to take action. If they care about price, offer a money back guarantee. If they care about reliability, evidence yours with testimonials.

Don’t be a bore

Your brand should have a personality (and that doesn’t necessarily mean ‘off the wall’). For example, rather than being the ‘professionals’, could you instead be ‘the professionals who think outside the square’? The latter brand message certainly has a very different feel and personality to it.

Have fun wherever you can too ‐ customers want to be engaged with the brands they interact with – that’s how you build brand loyalty. While you’re at it, make sure you speak their language – if they’re young hipsters, save the stuffy jargon. If you’re speaking with industry peers, you can afford to use a vocabulary designed for building credibility and trust. Most of the time however, a good guide is to write
marketing messages as if you were speaking to a friend ‐ overt formality kills any chance of connection you might have.

DIY Marketing Message Tip:

In all of your marketing material, you should feature a strong benefit‐rich headline, one that focuses on THE CUSTOMER instead of on your business.

Standing out from the crowd is easier than you might think. You simply need a strong, unique, benefit‐laden marketing message and a plan for implementation that keeps you accountable and is results‐driven.

The truth is, they won’t.

On almost all occasions a price increase can actually increase your sales volume.

For instance, an Australian based company with $9 billion in revenue was having challenges with its profit margins, so they decided to increase their prices. To do that, they categorised each of their 800,000 products as to how well they were differentiated in the market. With products that had a significant point of difference and little competition, they increased their prices significantly. With products that had lots of competition they increase prices just slightly. The result was a $200 million increase in revenue.

Price is determined by perceived value. So if your product or service has a high perceived value you can get away with charging higher prices. Ironically, your price point is actually a contributing factor in the perceived value of your product or service – that is, higher priced products are generally perceived to have a higher quality. Likewise, there must be some point of differentiation between your product/service and that of your competitors in order to justify a higher price. However, it’s important to note that this point of difference need not be just related to your product, for example you may sell a product similar to your competitors but offer amazing service.

The most important thing to remember is that you should raise your prices to match the price that the market is willing to pay for your products/services. Not doing so represents wasted profits and opportunities for transforming your business into something extraordinary.

Here is an example:

•  A builder decided to make a bold move by advertising to the world that he was ‘the most experienced builder in town’. In his ads he also included the reasons as to why he was. As soon as he did that his business went the through the roof – despite being the highest priced builder in town.
• Will raising your prices see you lose some of your existing customers? Yes. Will you also lose some potential sales? Yes, without a doubt. But here’s the good news: you’ll be getting rid of those pesky, time-wasting looky-loos and nuisance ‘D-class customers’. Your overall sales revenue should increase (usually quite significantly), you’ll have more time to spend working with your favourite clients and/or you’ll be attracting ideal, higher-value customers.

10 Steps to Follow before You Roll out a Price Increase:

1. Know your value proposition – make sure that your price is in direct proportion to perceived value. The more educated your customers are on the value of your product/service, the more they are prepared to pay.
2. Group your products/services into categories – divide them up into groups relating to the uniqueness of the product, or the value they deliver to the customer.
3. Talk to your salespeople – they will be able to provide you with valuable feedback on what the market will bear.
4. Get feedback from your lost prospects and customers – find out why they left. Was it price or the amount of value they received?
5. Work out your total estimated profit at each price point – this works best by doing a % and $ value increase/decrease across a range of price points, quantities and total revenues.
6. Identify ways to educate on value – spend time evaluating how well you’re educating your customers on value they are going to receive.
7. Increase the value you deliver – make sure the price you sell your product/service at matches the value the customer receives.
8. Test the price increase – see what the reaction is when you test the new price to a small random sample in your database.
9. Develop a communication plan – communicate your price increase to customers in the right way. Give reasons.
10. Inform customers – inform your customers if the impending price increase. Position it as a positive for them.

Good luck and don’t forget that 10X Coaching Club members across Australia and New Zealand have consistently been able to roll out price increases in their business – even during challenging economic times! Give us a call on 1300 855 109 today if you’d like some coaching around implementing a pricing review in your business. And remember: you’re probably more scared of a price increase than your customers are!

“Lack of loyalty is one of the major causes of failure in every walk of life” – Napoleon Hill

With the recent recession and ongoing economic volatility, many employees have found themselves out in the cold and out of a job. Staff loyalty has not been at the top of most employers’ list of concerns because after all, if someone wasn’t a good fit for the company, most organisations could afford to lose a little extra slack. However, with many businesses now recovering from last year’s financial mayhem, how to attract and keep the right kind of staff is again becoming a consideration.

Creating an environment where staff are not only loyal to your company, but also to their colleagues and projects, spells good things for your bottom line and staff turnover. To achieve this, there are a number of simple actions you can do to help foster stronger and more productive relationships between your employees and your company.

Here are a few:

Conduct a team ‘health check’
Sounds elementary right? But when was the last time you actively sought feedback from your employees as to their satisfaction in their jobs. A simple anonymous questionnaire can really work wonders for this. For example, you might ask:

• Do you fully understand where you fit in with the company’s overall direction?
• What do you like most/least about your job?
• What would you most like to learn?
• Do you feel you have adequate training to perform your role?
• Do you prefer financial or other rewards (e.g. verbal praise, a more leadership oriented role) in return for a job well done?

Improve every role
How do you make all of your roles great? Well, while individual preferences may vary, there are some standard attributes most workers will hope to have included in their roles, such as: variety in tasks, friendships with colleagues, fair decision making processes and procedures, equality between effort exerted and reward offered and a certain degree of autonomy (i.e. no micro management).

These factors can be worked into most roles, enabling you to offer employees a position that uses their unique talents and skills, while also compensating them appropriately – be it financial or otherwise. Google runs 11 free gourmet cafeterias at its Mountain View, California, headquarters and offers all its employees free gourmet meals. Those kind of extra perks really show employees you care and you’re doing your best to improve the quality of what they receive as part of their role.

Make the mundane, magic
Not all roles in your company are the most stimulating and even at the top levels, an executive who knows their role inside and out will still have times when they feel very uninspired by simply ‘going through the motions’. How to tackle the drag of monotony? Think outside the square. Cadbury recently upped the ante in their leadership program to get senior managers involved with charity projects. The program not only generated an increased connection between executives and the company, it also gave junior staff something to which they can aspire.

Move with the times
Being flexible is so important because just as a businesses’ needs change, so do the employees’. You need to be flexible to explore new options – options that may ultimately be more profitable for you. For example, being understanding of your young parents’ needs to drop children off and pick them up by approving flexi-time or the ability to start at 10am and finish at 6pm goes a long way toward improving productivity and loyalty.

Look to the future
If an employee has a career goal that means they need to leave your firm, gain experience, then come back – isn’t that a smart thing to encourage? Microsoft thought so – so they created an online alumni network to allow former colleagues to keep in contact with current employees. The result? A ‘boomerang’ effect where up-skilled employees requested to rejoin the company, bringing back all their valuable experience and more!

Say ‘Thank You!’
Specific, personal praise goes a lot further than generalized, ‘great job team’ remarks. Thank each team member separately and personally, for example, “Thank you for staying late to complete that PowerPoint presentation for the conference Janet. It really helped us out.” Showing respect and appropriate levels of gratitude are easy and inexpensive ways to keep an employee loyal and many employees value appreciation and gratitude for their work higher than any other job perks. Remember, we’re living in a time of instant gratification, so those ‘on the spot’ genuine ‘thanks’ will give employees the motivation to keep up the good work.

Don’t keep people in the dark
As I previously mentioned, staff need to feel that their work is important and has a purpose, for this, they will ultimately look to you to provide information and create excitement about what the company is doing. For example, when a team has finished a project, keep them in the loop about what will happen next to the fruits of their labour and update them on how they’ve affected outcomes in the business. It’s not hard and it doesn’t take much time, but it speaks volumes to a staff member about how important they are in the scheme of things.

Finally, realize that some turnover is inevitable. You can’t keep everyone happy as an employer, but you can do some small things that are inexpensive and effective in increasing an employee’s loyalty to you. You don’t need to transform into a Google overnight, offering free meals, child care, indoor rock climbing, etc. etc. – instead, just take small steps and build them up over time.

Having staff who are loyal and onboard with your company’s goals, mission and intention is fundamental in creating an X-Factor business. To find out more on how you can create a business that’s irresistible to customers and attracts the top staff in your industry, pick up a copy of Nic Clark’s book The Marketing X-Factor.

The old saying is certainly true – All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy (not to mention stressed, unhappy and possibly even physically ill!). But on the flip side, too much ‘fun stuff’ and our lives can stall, productivity declines into a state of procrastination and nothing actually ‘happens’. So how to we strike a satisfying balance between our various work and personal activities, one that’s rewarding, practical and productive?

Well, when it comes to developing a work/life balance, some professionals think they should be aiming to achieve an ‘equal balance’ between their professional and personal life, but this isn’t really the case. Nor is it realistic. Life is too fluid for you to strictly schedule your day into work and play. Instead, you need to recognise that the right balance can and will change day to day, over time and as your lifestyle changes.

Remember, there’s no ‘perfect’, one size fits all work/life balance. What’s best for one person won’t work for another because we all have different priorities and lives. So how do you regain and keep your own balance? Here are my top tips:

Regain Focus

Determine what is important to you. Simple I know, but when was the last time you considered these four aspects of your life: ‘Work, Family, Friends and You’ and decided what your number one priorities and goals were in each of those areas? Setting goals for yourself in these various areas helps you apportion your time accordingly.

Regain Order

Become more organized, so that you maximise your productivity (i.e. so you don’t have to stay back late at work every night). How? Take notice of when your high and low energy and concentration periods are during the working day, then capitalise on them by doing your most important tasks during your peak concentration/energy times.

Next, grab a pen and piece of paper and break your goals into deadlines, action plans and projects (which can be further broken down in tasks). An hour or two’s organization in this area will give you a roadmap that will keep you focused and on track.

Get organized in the familial sphere too – rosters of chores can seriously free up some of your time which can then be allocated to other tasks/activities. Be creative about finding solutions to reduce time-draining activities and remember, even if you can shave a minute or two, or even a few seconds off certain jobs here and there, it all adds up to you having more time to play with at the end of the day.

Regain Connection

Some people have their level of connection with the outside world all out of whack. Intrusive emails and mobile phone calls at all hours of the day and night are simply not conducive to balance in the work sphere. Know when to shut your laptop down and establish boundaries about what is and isn’t acceptable regarding calls after work.

Connect with your colleagues or employees and establish a support network for yourself. If you can delegate to someone else – do! Don’t settle for working ridiculous hours that could be reduced by half or more, if you only organized your time better and allocated time to train staff who showed potential.

Be Realistic

Finally, don’t think that there are some ‘special’ people out there who can just magically balance everything in their life, like family, careers, friendships and personal development. Those kind of people might look on the outside as if they’re calmly keeping all their irons in the fire without so much as breaking a sweat, but look again.

Just like everyone else they’ll have worked hard to decide what’s important, create goals around those things and generate the momentum that creates and maintains that balance. This is one juggling act that’s well worth perfecting, so put in the effort now and you’ll be reaping the benefits for years to come.

The answer – none.

Nobody ever really works for someone else – EVERYONE, without exception, works for themselves. As a manager, it’s my job to help other people work better, amass a greater skill set and build a marketable employment record so that they leave my team richer than when they joined.

Obviously in the process of working on their career, they’ll benefit my organization – but they don’t work FOR me – they have their own goals and objectives, their own dreams and passions. It’s a small distinction to make, but one that small business owners need to get wise to early on in the piece – and the sooner they do, the more they’ll get out of their staff.

One way to help staff work better for themselves is be a better manager. Simple, right?

If you don’t read managerial books or listen to educational audio material in your car, you’re missing out a HUGELY valuable opportunity – one book I’d highly recommend is the One Minute Manager. With 13 million copies sold worldwide and 10,000 more selling every month – it’s one of the best selling management books in history (a good place to start on your quest for managerial superstardom).

It’s short and sweet, so a good one to lay some solid foundations and covers the three keys to being a master of management – they’re so simple you can even implement them today:

1. Set 1-minute goals WITH your staff.
2. Use 1-minute praisings when goals are achieved.
3. Use 1-minute reprimands when goals are not achieved.

It’s a highly effective system – and the best part is, it only requires that you spend one minute on each of the above to get a LOT more out of your people – and in turn, yourself!

Try one of the One Minute Manager’s tips today and see what a difference it can make.

And remember, you have three options when it comes to having the best staff around, you can either 1. hire winners (expensive), 2. hire those with potential and train them to be winners (recommended) or, 3. pray.

1. First, you can hire winners. They are hard to find and they cost money.
2. Or, second, if you can’t find a winner, you can hire someone with the potential to be a winner. Then you systematically train that person to become a winner.
3. If you are not willing to do either of the first two (and I am continually amazed at the number of managers who won’t spend the money to hire a winner or take the time to train someone to become a winner), then there is only the third choice left–prayer.’

For a while now, I’ve been aware

Nobody ever really works for anyone else. I just help people work better and in the process they benefit our organization.

13 million copies sold worldwide, and 10,000 copies still selling every month make it one of the best-selling management books in history.

For over twenty years, thousands of top managers and Fortune 500 companies nationwide have followed this book’s techniques, thereby increasing productivity, job satisfaction, and personal prosperity. These very real results were achieved through learning management techniques that spell profitability for the organization and it’s employees.

The One Minute Manager® is a concise, easily read story demonstrating three very practical management techniques. The story unfolds to reveal several studies in medicine and the behavioral sciences that explain clearly why these apparently simple methods work so well with so many people. By the book’s end you will know how to apply them to your own situation.

The One Minute Manager® is the book that made me a fan of Kenneth Blanchard.

In it, he uses very simple principles in management. That I am surprised is not used widely. It’s a very thin book, but something that people who get promoted to management should read.

‘Effective Managers… manage themselves and the people they work with so that both the organization and the people profit from their presence.’

People who feel good about themselves – produce good results.

During meetings:

1. Review & Analyse what you accomplished last week.
2. Problems that you had.
3. What still needs to be accomplished.
4. Develop plans & strategies for next week.

The purpose of this organization is efficiency. By being organized we are a great deal more productive.

Productivity is more than just the quantity of work done. It is also the quality.

Quality is simply giving people the product or service they really want and need.

The 3 things about the one minute manager is this:

One minute goal setting is simply:

1. Agree on your goals.
2. See what good behaviour looks like.
3. Write out each of your goals on a single sheet of paper using less than 250 words.
4. Read and re-read each goal, which requires only a minute or so each time you do it.
5. Take a minute every once in a while out of your day to look at your performance, and
6. See whether or not your behaviour matches your goal.

Use the Pareto Principle there are only 20% of goals that really achieve 80% of what you want.

If you can’t tell me what you’d like to be happening, you don’t have a problem yet. You’re just complaining. A problem exists only if there is a difference between what is actually happening and what you desire to be happening.

One Minute Praising Works Well When You:

1. Tell people right from the start that you are going to let them know how they are doing.
2. Praise people immediately.
3. Tell people what they did right–be specific.
4. Tell people how good you feel about what they did right, and how it helps the organization and the other people who work there.
5. Stop for a moment of silence to let them ‘feel’ how good you feel.
6. Encourage them to do more of the same.
7. Shake hands or touch people in a way that makes it clear that you support their success in the organization.

One Minute Reprimand works well when you:

1. Tell people beforehand that you are going to let them know how they are doing and in no uncertain terms.
2. The first half of the reprimand: Reprimand people immediately.
3. Tell people what they did wrong-be specific.
4. Tell people how you feel about what they did wrong-and in no uncertain terms.
5. Stop for a few seconds of uncomfortable silence to let them feel how you feel.
6. The second half of the reprimand: Shake hands, or touch them in a way that lets them know you are honestly on their side.
7. Remind them how much you value them.
8. Reaffirm that you think well of them but not of their performance in this situation.
9. Realize that when the reprimand is over, it’s over.

The best minute I spend is the one I invest in other people.

“It’s ironic, most companies spend 50%-70% of their money on people’s salaries. And yet they spend less than 1% of their budget to train their people. Most companies, in fact, spend more time and money on maintaining their buildings and equipment than they do on maintaining and developing people.”

1. Everyone is a potential winner.
2. Some people are disguised as losers.
3. Don’t let their appearances fool you.

Take a minute: Look at your goals. Look at your performance. See if your behaviour matches your goals.

We are not just our behaviour. We are the person managing our behaviour.

Reprimand before praise. Not the other way round. Praising is reminding people they are valuable and worthwhile.

Touching is important if you know the person well and are clearly interested in helping the person to succeed in his or her work. But not if you or the other person has doubts about that.

Touch is a very powerful message.

Touch is very honest. People know immediately when you touch them whether you care about them, or whether you are just trying to find a new way to manipulate them.

When you touch. Don’t take. Touch people you manage only when you are giving them someone–reassurance, support, encouragement, or whatever.

Manipulation is getting people to do something they are either not aware of or don’t agree to. That is why it is so important to let each person know right from the start what you are doing and why.

Goals begin behaviors, consequences maintain behaviors.

CFO’s from some of Australia’s top companies have agreed that especially given the global financial crisis, accountants, more than ever need to shift the way they look at their roles and start taking a more proactive approach with the businesses they either work in or assist.

Australia Post’s CFO, Peter Meehan was quoted in the article as saying, “You need to get your hands dirty,” to “understand the business beneath the spreadsheet,” a sentiment which I believe really sums up how accountants need to consider their roles today.

Typically accountants have been able to adopt a passive stance and take on a complacent attitude, seeing their recurring income come in year after year – without much proactivity on their part. Times are changing though as businesses struggle through challenging times and are demanding more assistance to bolster their key financial indicators, requesting direction to implement preemptive measures, rather than have a ‘bean counter’ report on the damage, after the event.

In fact, Randy Wong, director of business performance services at KPMG, demonstrated just how much the profession is changing when he listed the following traits as being ideal attributes for accountants today:

1. Strong financial credentials,
2. Complimented by strong leadership skills,
3. Change-management expertise,
4. A hands-on knowledge of each company’s operations, and
5. Refined communication skills.

How many of those could you tick off as being attributes YOUR accountant possesses?

I also thought it illustrative as to just how much the industry is shifting, when Wong said, “In three years’ time, 70 to 75 percent of CFOs will be providing opinions to support strategic decisions, up from 60 per cent who feel they already do this.”

Clearly strategic advice as opposed to traditional reporting and compliance is the way the wind is blowing with regards to the accounting profession, which is, in many expert’s opinions, not only preferable, but essential given the challenging nature of today’s economic climate.

• Give your copywriter a good solid brief for the work they do, saving you time (and hence, money) and
• You’ll be able to judge when a writer supplies you with a finished product whether they’ve done a quality job, and/or be able to suggest potential areas where the copy could be tightened up.

Because of this, I’ve created a 7 point checklist for you to run all your marketing material by to see if it makes the grade.

1. It’s all about YOU! Make sure the word, “You” is littered all throughout your copy. Better yet, use your prospect’s name into the ad or letter. Do this and you’ll see a marked difference in your response rate.
2. Don’t be a living thesaurus. People like to read simple, easy to understand words that elicit an emotional response. Save the elaborate vocabulary for your Pulitzer submission.
3. Metaphors make money. Metaphors are great at arousing emotion. For example: “Burns cash”, “Take the bull by the horns,” etc. No need to be cheesy, but a few well-placed metaphors here and there are worth their weight in gold.
4. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Use words that are PROVEN to sell. Some of the best sellers are: You, Save, Money, Free, Easy, New, Guarantee and Proven.
5. Get to the point. Keep sentences short and punchy. No-one appreciates verbosity when they’re being sold to. They want to know what they’ll get out of your product/service, and they want to know now!
6. Push their buttons. What are the ‘trigger’ words for your target market? Is it ‘money’? or ‘safety’? How about ‘health’ or ‘security’? Find out what these are and then make sure they appear enough to get prospects in the buying zone.
7. Cover the basics. Don’t ever overlook providing the essential answers to the “Who?”, “What?”, “When?”, “Where?”, “Why?”, and “How?” questions that your target market will inevitably be asking themselves.

What copy have you written that’s been met with great success? Share your successes in the comment section below.

In fact, I could list a range of other household name, Australian brands that have some of the leanest head offices around, yet still manage to rake in the big bucks every year. Take JB Hi-Fi for example – their $2.4 billion turnover isn’t generated by bums on seats in head office, but salespeople on the floor – which is exactly how Richard Uechtritz has engineered his company model to run.

Similarly, our nation’s third richest person, Harry Triguboff (also known as ‘High-Rise Harry’), Chairman and Managing Director of Meriton Apartments, knows the value of keeping HQ’s a tidy affair, with his office staffed on a ‘needs’, not ‘wants’ basis.

This is a lesson that many small and medium sized business owners fail to learn as they grow – more staff = greater costs and if those staff aren’t directly generating money for you (think the salespeople on the JB Hi-Fi store floor) you really should look at the value of their place in your organisation. All the admin staff in the world won’t help you if you don’t have personnel out in the field making sales. No sales = no business.

So then, how do you deal with all those niggling tasks that inevitably quadruple as you grow in size (like chasing unpaid invoices, IT issues, marketing and other administration)? Easy – just outsource! Outsourcing the work you don’t get paid for is one of the key ways to drive costs down and keep your head office a lean mean profit making machine.

Yes, there’s an outlay involved in these outsourced services, but you should only consider this model if, with the time you free up, you can recoup more money than what you’re spending, by increasing your selling activities.

It’s a simple philosophy – and as with most things in life, the simple things are often the best. As they say in advertising, so too it applies here in management– Keep It Simple Stupid!

After all, consumers couldn’t care less if you are the only company with a zebra-striped logo and with company cars that feature angel wings on them. All they care about is how well your business is going to fix their problem or fulfil their needs.

So focus on your target market, who they are, where they live, what’s important to them, what frustrates them about doing business with companies in your industry.

Then identify how your company can offer value in a way that significantly out-performs all your competitors (either in an actual or perceived way).

When it comes to their views on USPs, business owners are divided into two camps – they either feel that they don’t have anything unique to offer customers OR they feel that they offer a better quality service or product than their competitors but they have no real way of justifying that.

Regardless of where you sit, these steps will help dig out a unique selling proposition that truly sets you apart from your competitors.

The most effective way to discover what’s unique about your business is to look at your business through the eyes of your customer.

1. Identify which needs are going unmet in your industry or market.

To do this, ask yourself these questions:

What needs, or what problems, do customers have that your product or service will fulfil? (Please be as specific as you can. The more specific you are the better the result).

How specifically do your customers want their lives to be different after purchasing your product or service? (Please be as specific as you can. The more specific you are the better the result).

2. What annoys people about dealing with people in your industry?

Sometimes creating a USP that centres on customers’ key frustrations can work very well.

You see, (rightly or wrongly) consumers have a preconceived idea that when they’re going to do business with someone in a certain industry they’re going to have problems.

For instance, people often believe that if they’re buying a home, the real estate agent is going to lie to them in order to get them to sign on the dotted line.

If they’re selling, they often feel that the real estate agent is going to over-inflate the appraisal price just to get the listing, then needlessly charge them squillions in advertising to find a buyer.

With used car dealerships, people perceive they’re going to be ripped off and sold a lemon.

The first step in combating those fears is to first identify what they are. Next, develop a USP that proves that you are above board, that you do a great job, that you do care about their needs, and that you do have the expertise to deliver.

Here are some more examples (in no particular order) of frustrations that people have when dealing with certain industries:

• Mobile phone company: poor coverage.
• Real estate: told lies.
• Tradespeople: unreliable, sloppy workmanship.
• Car dealerships: sold lemons, told lies.
• Fast food restaurants: unhealthy food that tastes horrible.
• Accountants: no vision and focused on the past not the future.
• Solicitors: overcharge.
• Couriers: unreliable.

So what’s your industry reputation like (regardless of whether or not it is deserved)? If it’s quite good, you’ll probably find that another type of USP will be better suited to your business.

3. How does your business stand out from your competitors AND offer a solution that meets your customers’ needs and/or solves their frustrations in a unique and very powerful way?

To work this out, ask yourself whether you do any of the following:

• Sell your products or services for a cheaper price than anyone else (and if so how much cheaper?)
• Have a much higher quality product or service than the competition?
• Offer much better customer service or product information than anyone else, at comparable or lower prices?
• Offer a money back or replacement guarantee that is twice as long or powerful than your key competitors?
• Provide more exciting bonuses, premiums or value added gifts than anyone else?
• Have a much larger range of products?
• Have a service department that is significantly larger than what your competitors have so customers get speedier service?
• Have a trade-in program that nobody else has?
• Serve a specific niche-market and are the only ones in your industry that do that, e.g. like the Australian Pensioner’s Insurance Agency or Shannon’s examples (get a copy of my book).

Or maybe there is something else that you offer?

So how do you compare with your competition?

When describing your point-of-difference forget words like “quality,” “service,” “number one” and especially “unique”. These words are vague, empty and clichéd.

Instead, drill down further and focus on the specific benefits that you deliver, the specific ways that you offer superior quality, superior service and so on.

• Price?
• Service?
• Quality?
• Market Share?
• Size?
• Range?
• Expertise?
• Other

4. Cull

Now that you have a list of points that differentiate your business, cross out the ones that you feel aren’t of great value to your customers.

For instance, if you have a bakery and it is painted bright orange so it stands out, that probably isn’t something that is of benefit to your customers.

5. Work on Specifics

With this shortlist, spend some time fleshing out these points proving how you stand out from your competitors. Go into specifics and offer proof.
For instance, with your service, what process do you go through to give your customer fantastic results?

6. Simplify

With your shortlist in hand, now simplify it. Cut out all the fluff and redundant words that don’t contribute to the sales message. Prepare a one paragraph statement that sums up your USP.

If you’re finding it difficult to summarise your uniqueness in one paragraph try writing it in two or three paragraphs. Once you’ve done that, then edit it down to one paragraph.

7. Prove it

Now that you have made the claims about how you stand out and developed your USP now it’s important to look at how you can maximise the credibility of your USP. In other words, how can you prove those claims? One of the most powerful ways to do that is by offering a guarantee. Is it possible for you to guarantee something?

For instance …

“The cheapest prices in town or we’ll refund your money plus 10%.”
“Delivered in 30 minutes or it’s free.”

8. Create a Tagline

With that short statement, look at the individual words and see if you can reduce it to one catchy sentence that you can use for a tagline. You’ll need to cut out even more words but also see how you can replace “dull” words with spicy, crisp ones that stand out.

For instance, the word “need” is more attention grabbing than the word “require” and the word “beautiful” is much more powerful than the word “aesthetically pleasuring”.

Come up with a list of three to five.

9. Get reactions

Survey your top customers and ask them which of the taglines they prefer better.

10. Educate your team

Discuss your new USP with your team and educate them about how powerful it is as a differentiation tool.

It’s a good idea to involve them in the USP development process as well. That’s because your team members are at the coal face and liaise with customers at all different stages of the sales and fulfilment process. With that, they will often have some unique insights into how your company can stand out.

11. Promote

Once you have finalised your tagline it’s now time to get the word out about your USP. Integrate it into every marketing project of your business. Use it in your display advertising, direct mail and sales processes.

• Advertising headlines
• Business cards
• Letterhead
• Signs
• Brochures
• Elevator pitch
• On hold message
• Sales presentation
• Website
• Point of sale material
• Tagline underneath the logo
• “Why Us” statement

For more examples get a copy of my book the Marketing X Factor on the Nic Clark shop.

So you got your Facebook page created. Great, you’ve hurdled a major milestone. But what’s next? Certainly, you’d want your prospective audience to view your page and like it.

It’s not that easy, unfortunately.

First you have to assess your page. Have you customized it sufficiently so that it readily reflects what you offer (read: what’s there to like)? Will visitors who visit your page for the first time intuitively know what your page is about? Are there compelling content to ‘like’, in the first place?

Focus on these issues before diving into the pool. But once who have done some pretty neat makeover, you can then prepare for war.

The first thing to remember is that in order to have people like your fan page, you got to give them a good reason to. The truth is so simple it seems like it was spoken out by an Aesop character, doesn’t it?

And like another moral lesson out of a fable, you have to do a good deed first before goodies come to you. Social media is about connections, factions, and fans and that is where you have to start to build a truly vibrant fan base.

You have to be one yourself first. Be a fan of people and stuff that are related to what you intend to offer on Facebook. Connect with other fans. Who knows, they could become fans and evangelists for your brand in the future. Connect with your prospective audience. Join groups that are relevant to your business or trade.

Participate in a way in which your involvement is meaningful and you give value to other people in your group. Post developments from these groups on your fan page to present an image that your site is lively and full of insightful, exciting interactions.

Tag your connections so that your brand will show up in a lot of people’s pages and you begin to create awareness for your brand. Make this a daily habit, allocating minutes, even hours just to subtly propagate your message.

Facebook’s tagging feature allows tagging messages to appear on people’s walls. Leverage this feature by adding a link to your fan page each time you tag a prospective evangelist.

Based on your interactions with your fans, sift through their mixed message and determine what they may like or need. Leverage that knowledge by developing a service or product (or even realigning or enhancing your existing services) to reflect those needs.

Communicate the message using rich media such as photos and videos since they are generally more effective at conveying what you wish to express than mere words. Offer these content only on your Facebook fan page in order to generate a feeling of exclusivity among your fans. You might want to also give perks to fans who promptly liked the new content by offering discounts or other special deals that they can only get via your fan page.

If you have fans who engage your messages more actively, recognize their contributions by offering your insights on their needs and other issues. Make them feel like kings and queens without patronizing them. By doing so, you may be able to induce them to spread the word about you and your unique value to your target audience.