Creating a Market Leading USP

Please note this transcript is machine generated so it is not perfect and should be used for reference only, you will get the best from the podcast by listening to it in it's designed format.

(00:00)
So hello, who here has their Christmas tree up yet? Dare I say it? It's not quite December. I'm wondering if any of you guys have your Christmas decorations out for all to see or whether you are officially putting off for as long as possible before it becomes inappropriate not to, or the kids drive you absolutely bonkers. And we haven't currently got ours up yet. But it's definitely on the agenda in terms of my daughter Ellie, who is continually reminding me that Christmas is only a few weeks away. So, I don't know whether I'm, whether you're one of these people who are like, Oh my gosh, I can't wait for Christmas to begin. Or whether you're putting it off. But either way, I'm looking to finish 2019 with an absolute bang and it's my mission to help you do the exact same thing. So we're going to go hard up until the week before Christmas.

(00:59)
I think it's the week before Christmas where I'm taking officially two weeks off. I like to do this. I like to have scheduled time that I take off. So I know that I can have that guilt free time because it is already planned in the diary. It's not work time that I'm just sort of like, you know, skiving from it is officially downtime. So I like to do that. So I know I've got the deadline that I need to make happen and I'm quite rigid with it. This isn't something that I kind of bend the rules on when it comes to that Christmas time downtime. I ensure that I want to finish on that day knowing that Hey, I have done everything possible to make 2019 the best year possible. and it really has been, there's been some incredible things going on. We've had the Expert Unrivalled, second event.

(01:48)
The UK's number one positioning conference that happened in November. I say November. It is November, it feels like ages ago, but in fact, actually it was probably only about three weeks ago. The Expert Unrivalled conference launched live yet again in Cardiff and I'm finishing 2019 by planning 2020s events. So do keep your eyes peeled and your ears primed to hear about when tickets are going to go live for that event, which I'm really excited about. The bar was set extremely high this year withExpert Unrivalled and I really do have a job on my hands to make sure that it really meets the same expectations that people have after their amazing experience. Such incredible value. We even had people in the audience saying, I felt like an actual thief sitting in the audience with the amount of gold that was shared on that stage.

(02:44)
So I'm really, really proud of that event and I'm really excited to launch that again in 2020. So all this is happening. We've got the launch of this podcast, we've got the launch of the next event next year. I've also got plans to, ,publish a new book next year as well. So there's loads of things in the pipeline. And then in my other business we're also launching another podcast. It won't have my lovely voice on it, however, because I tend to do the boring behind the scenes businessy stuff. In the other business, which is, if you don't know a company called EverTrek, which I help to run with my other half who is the mountain man who loves to be out about and is interested in all things trekking, which I do like a walk, but I've got to be honest with you, he's still warming me up to an Everest base camp trek.

(03:34)
I still haven't quite got there yet. That was going to be my next challenge I think but first of all the challenge is to feel motivated to do it. So yeah, wish me luck with that. So all the stuff's happening. I've also just wrapped up with some incredible clients, who have all created incredible points of difference to position themselves as market leaders, which has just been absolutely fantastic. I'm just going to shout out Alessia Pandolfi. I literally haven't stopped hearing her name over the last few weeks around how amazing her content is. She is, I can vouch to this firsthand actually because whilst I've been working with her in the past, she's also and will continue to, to work on my business as a tech expert. She's just absolutely incredible. And we created an incredible USP that's really made her stand out in the market and she's been selling her first ever high ticket 5k offers.

(04:32)
So super, super proud of her. Just want to give her a shout out. If you ever need anything to do with tech in your business, do you make sure you give her a shout? That's Alessia Pandolfi and if you are somebody who would like to create a clear point of difference, then you are more than welcome to have a chat and book a call with me, the link is in the show notes, but it is bit.ly/claritycallpodcast. But the link is in the show notes and you can just go in there and book your call and we can have a chat around how we might be able to work together in the future to create those clear points of difference that are going to position you as a market leader. So without further ado, I want to really launch in to today's podcast episode to show you how you can start making those first steps to doing the same thing.

(05:25)
So becoming a market leader can look different from person to person. For me, I like to define it as being the first choice for your market. For me, that really encompasses everything that you're trying to achieve when you are looking at becoming a market leader. But in order to be the first choice for your target markets, you have to be able to stand out. And the problem is most industries are saturated, most markets are saturated. And so it's really, really important that we look at creating these clear points of differences that help us stand out in the market. Because if you want to be the one that gets the majority of the market share or gets those invites to the best stages to speak on the best stages to be on the best podcasts to get interviewed, to get quoted in industry recognized platforms.

(06:29)
If you want all of this industry recognition, if you want to write incredible groundbreaking content and information and thought leadership, then it is so, so important that you do this, that you find that clear point of differentiation because otherwise you're just going to blend in with the market and genuinely I feel that this is not only the biggest point of focus that everyone needs to be focusing on in 2020 but I also believe that it is going to be the thing that will make or break a lot of businesses, particularly in the UK with Brexit looming, the market's very uncertain at the moment and so it's going to be a survival of the fittest, which is what it's like in any uncertain market. Now I'm not here to scaremonger anybody with the whole Brexit thing. And I don't want to really focus on that too much.

(07:24)
But what I do want to say on that fact is, is that you can't ignore it. We can't pretend that it's not happening. But what we can do is ensure that our business is watertight. Because I genuinely believe that if you follow the process of ensuring that a, you have that clear point of difference that positions you away from everyone else in the market and positions you as that obvious choice for your market and that you also have high ticket offerings because one of the first things to go are going to be the nice to have items. So you want to be someone who is solving critical problems and critical goals. And so you're dealing with people who are willing to spend a lot more money, which means your business are going to, it's going to get a higher cash injection, which is going to see you survive financially as well as, in terms of your brand as well.

(08:20)
So I do want to say those two things on that point because I genuinely believe that those two things are going to see you through 2020 and not just survive but thrive. So then if you're looking to create that clear point of difference, one of the first things that you need to recognise is that you have to move beyond just you being unique. So for instance, I've got X years experience in the industry. I'm creative. I, I'm spoke, I offered, I offer perhaps like a more boutique offering or I'm qualified and no one else is qualified. I'm niche. All of these things are attached to you and this is going to sound very harsh, but no one truly cares about them. And the reason they don't really care about them is because everyone else is using the same selling points. And so therefore they're no longer unique.

(09:21)
Now there's the argument as well that I really want to push forward and that is that when you're looking at USP, you cannot forget every single word in, in the acronym. Yes. It needs to be unique because it needs to be able to stand out as a fresh new offering. But also it's really important that you understand that it's also a selling point. And so whilst yes, it has to be unique, it also has to be a benefit. And just because it's unique doesn't always mean that it's useful. So it's that magic combination of the two things of, of creating something that is there is 100% unique, but it's also a benefit to your market and that that is the, they both have to be equally strong. You can't have one incredibly unique unicorn, with a, with a little bit of a touch of benefit on there.

(10:19)
It really does have to be useful if you want to be somebody that takes the lion's share of the market. So first of all is recognizing that, you know, use a USP is, isn't, is a cop out. Now unfortunately you're going to have to think a little bit harder, but don't panic because in this episode I'm going to talk through that with you. And also recognizing that what you think you have that is unique is highly likely not to be. Now, if you do after listening to this episode, then massive congrats. This is really, really good news for you. But have a listen and just see if you can identify whether it ticks all of the boxes that you need to have when you're creating a USP. Now notice I said create a USP and I'm not saying find one. Now what's really important here is that you stop waiting for your USP to fall out of the sky and into your lap or this kind of like bolt out of the blue.

(11:24)
And in a way, this might be good news to some of you because if you're trying to search for that USP and you're not finding it and you're waiting for it and it's still not happened, you're going to be really pleased to hear that you can stop waiting because it's not about waiting for that moment of clarity. It's actually about innovation engineering. Because it's about creating something that is going to be unique because I've got news for you. All the ideas have already been taken. They really isn't a truly unique idea anymore. They've all been done. They've all been said, they've all been put out there in some way, shape or form. But what we need to do is, is to be a bit clever and we need to reengineer those ideas. And sometimes it's also about resurrecting those ideas because sometimes the ideas have been put out there, but they're no longer being talked about or in fact it's perhaps a point of difference there was never talked about because no one's really thought to do it.

(12:28)
I was speaking to a friend at the pub on Saturday, around how people get in the Guinness book of records and she was saying that actually there are a lot of things they would like the fastest person in this category or whatever it was. Clearly, clearly I was focusing on that conversation. I didn't have too many vodkas, but it's around, it was around how you get into the Guiness Book of records. And even though they technically weren't the first, the first or the fastest, but it hasn't been recorded in the Guinness book of records. So someone else might start to say, well actually years ago I had done that, but they didn't record it. And so therefore the person who puts themselves forward and records that record is now classified as the fastest. So this is also a lesson in saying, you know, you have to put yourself forward.

(13:27)
You have to really shout about the things that you do because if you don't, it's a wasted opportunity and potentially someone else is going to, you know, someone else who is slower, weaker, not as good as you is going to take the trophy. So you do have to really step out and shout about what you do as a business, how you help people and your achievements and the kinds of results that you get for you get for your clients. Because if you do that, that's really going to shine a light on how you can help other people and also that you're the person to go to when it comes to that. So there we go. First of all, recognizing the fact that we need to actually create something and in an engineer it, the best way to differentiate and position yourself as the market leader to buy from in 2019 2020 and beyond is to actually productize your USP piece so that it separates you and you can actually create something that's separate from you.

(14:37)
So not only does this mean that this gives people something very tangible to sink their teeth into, it's very easily understood. People get what you're talking about because you're talking about it in terms of a thing rather than a very vague concept. It also allows you to scale because something that a lot of service based businesses struggle with, particularly when perhaps you're a solopreneur or you're very attached to your attributes and qualities as a coach or a consultant, is that you kind of feel like no one else can do it better than you can. And that is, uh, a kind of a great confidence to have, but it can also hold you back because it massively stops you from scaling because you then can't, you can't clone yourself yet. You never know it was happening in the future, but you can't clone yourself right now.

(15:35)
And so therefore you have a limit to how much you can actually deliver. But if you're looking to scale in the future, extracting the USP and productizing it will allow you to scale beyond just you D delivering the service. So these are some, you know, some really positive points around doing this process. And I call it creating a unique magic bullet, which my sister, by the way, keeps telling me it sounds extremely rude. I like to point out to my sister, she is listening that if you type in unique magic bullet into Google, one of the first things that come, comes up is actually a blender. So I just want to put that out there that if anyone else knows what she's referring to, it has nothing to do with that thing and are, please don't leave my podcast episode to go and rush to google to find out what this is because I'm about to deliver some really, really important information around what a unique magic, but it truly is.

(16:40)
Now a unique magic bullet is created from the way you help your clients achieve a specific goal out overcome a specific problem. It serves as a very reason people don't want or need to look anywhere else because they have the very solution that they have been looking for all along and your business is the only way they're going to get it, which is why it's pointless looking anywhere else. It's a new solution. It's a unique way of helping your ideal client achieve their goal and overcome that root problem. So when it comes to actually positioning your unique magic bullets to people, there is an element of education around it. Yes, it has to be explained quickly and easily because people don't hang around for long these days. They want to know what they need to know now. They don't want to have to wait or for it to be overly explained.

(17:41)
So with that in mind, we also still have to look at ways where we can educate quickly on why they are not able to solve their problem or why they are in such confusion right now about how to get there and how your unique way of doing things helps them overcome that root problem that that hurdle that they are experiencing. And it has to be innovated in such a way that it has your own entirely unique stamp on it. So it's about that engineering and innovation that we talked about so that they know that they can only get what you're offering from your business. It also means that you can name it and trademark it and own it as intellectual property, which actually further positions you as a market leader and everybody loves a formula. They love a method, they love something that is going to be almost like a magic pill.

(18:43)
Now very, very briefly take you on a slight tangent because I can feel a lot of intakes of breath as you perhaps listen to this when you think, I don't want anybody who wants a magic pill. Now I just want to not challenge you on this. I just want you to think of a different perspective. So I don't want people that want a magic pill either because I've had clients in the past who want to throw money at something and just expect it to work and it, it just doesn't happen. Even if you're selling a product, let's say a mop, you know, just buying them up isn't going to do the job you get. I have to use it. And that's the, the change in perspective. The way I want you to see this is that the, perhaps that mop is sold to you as the best thing since sliced bread.

(19:34)
So let's take joy. Anyone seen that film? Joy absolutely love one of my favorite films as a feel, feel good moment of fact. That is going to be on my list of Christmas films to watch. It's probably not a Christmas film. I don't think it is, but it will be on my Christmas list or watch. But in this film, joy is on a boat and she smashes or someone smashes a glass of red wine, and she tries to mop up this, this, this glass of red wine. And as she's doing so she's trying to ring it out and she cuts her hands on this glass and she was like, this really isn't the best way. And she has this almost an epiphany moment around, Oh my gosh, I've got an idea here. That is going to change the, the households everywhere. And so she created this self wringing mop.

(20:27)
So this is sold to you as something that's going to change your life when it comes to cleaning, it's going to be a lot quicker. You're not going to hurt yourself. You don't have to touch the mop pad. You can put it straight into the washing machine. You can rewash it. All of these amazing USP'S that are sold to you, now, you have to use the mop in order for the magic to happen. But it still feels like magic. And you cannot argue that you have not felt a magical experience like that when it's come, when it comes sort of using certain products or when it's come to getting that moment of clarity where you're like, 'Oh my gosh, that's what I was waiting for' - and that's what you're trying to give your audience. Your market is an epiphany moment where they finally feel that relief or that excitement about, I found the thing that I was after all along, so never poo poo the magic pill experience because whilst we don't want people who just want to Chuck money at things and hope that they work, it's like giving them a magic spell.

(21:37)
You're giving them something that they can use to achieve a result. It's not about pulling in those lazy clients. It's about pulling in your target market onto something that's going to truly help them if they choose to put the effort in. And that's a different perspective. I just wanted to talk to you about because there's sometimes a resistance to this way of working because I hear all the time I want to offer a bespoke experience. To everybody. And that's absolutely fine. And I agree with that because that's what I do for my clients as well. But let me just take you back to what a unique magic, but it is. And so by, in order to explain this, I'm going to tell you what it's not. It's not necessarily your entire process. Okay. Now there are no hard and fast rules with this. So there is some creative license.

(22:29)
But let me explain it to you like this. Your unique magic bullet is a mechanism within your process that makes the thing work. So if you are solving a particular problem for somebody, but they have additional needs or things, other things that they want to focus on as well, they can still get all of that and you can bespoke your service to create an experience that's unique to them. But they know that within that they are going to get that thing that they, that they know is the thing that they need. So let me explain this to you. In an example, I recently switched over from a PC to an Apple Mac. Now it's controversial as that is for some people. The reason I did it was because I was fed up with my PC being so blooming slow and I just needed it to work.

(23:25)
I just want to open it up and I just want to do my thing and I want to get on with my day without the worry and the chugging and the mouse being ill and not quite making the computer work and so and so forth. I just wanted it to work and the reason I chose the Apple Mac is because of the Mac OS system that is within the Mac, the operating system that runs behind. I don't like this. It's clear now that I don't know what I'm talking about when it comes to computers, but I don't need to know. All I need to know is is that my problem is that I need my computer to work faster at my pace rather than me having to wait for it. And I've been told that the Mac book pro that I've bought has the MAC OS system in it and therefore that is going to make it work a lot faster.

(24:13)
And do the things that I needed to do. I don't need to know how the opera operating system actually works. I just need to know that it's going to do the thing and the fact that it has some kind of science behind it. Because you know, if it was literally like if I found out for instance, it was a placebo effects, then obviously I'm going to be very annoyed and I've not been sold to properly and I'm going to take the computer back and complain vigorously. But as long as you have some science behind what you're offering and there's integrity behind it, then engineering these products and these USP to your market is going to give them something they can understand more easily. They can sink their teeth into. And more than that, here's another benefit that they can then talk about and share with other people.

(25:10)
So guys, if you're sitting here listening to me going, my computer's really slow, maybe I'll get a Mac because of that Mac OS system, it's easily understood. I've been able to explain it very quickly to you. And the concept is now in your brain. Now it might be that because obviously people don't just buy on a specific USP. And we'll come to talk about that in the coming episodes if the Expert Unrivalled podcast around the other things and the other reasons that people buy and what you need to do. Because there can be some of you sitting out going, I'm never buying Apple because you're just not with their brand. You are a die hard Microsoft fan, whatever that other reason might be for the various other reasons that you have. But for some people this could be a serious game changer. You know, I already, I was already sold on Apple, - I have an Apple iPhone .

(26:00)
I'm just waiting for someone to deliver my, my Apple iPhone 11. So I'm already an Apple fan, so that wasn't necessarily the problem for me. I'm not, I'm not particularly brand loyal when it comes to that. I'm not fast, but I am fast on the functionality because I am that sort of buyer. And you had different types of buyers as well. But regardless of whatever type of buyer you want, there needs to be science and substance behind what you're offering. Because if there's not, you're going to find that yes she might make a few sales, but you're also going to damage your reputation in the market and people are not going to be readily sharing what you're offering. So that's really, really important as well. And the thing is is that if you don't start doing this, if you don't start productizing your USP and really talking about them tangibly, you're going to get left behind because this is the way that we need to be working, moving forward in order to stand out of the saturation that's within the market.

(27:05)
Otherwise you're just going to blend in with everybody else. In a way, you're going to lack credibility and trust with your market because people wonder if they'll truly get the results you speak of because again, it lacks a tangibility. People can start to doubt that it can work for them and your prospects are more likely to shop around comparing you against someone similar- that the whole apples for apples concept around if you compare one Apple against another Apple, it's going to be very, very hard. But if you are, say an Apple innocent smoothie or an Apple naked bar or even a candy Apple with a ton of marshmallows on the top, it really positions you at a different angle, at a different selling point. It almost pushes you that one step further as to the reason why people want to buy from you. So we need to start creating a purple cow, not just another Apple to be compared against another Apple.

(28:05)
You're also going to find it very easy to stand out by doing this because 90% of service based businesses currently don't have one of these things. We're very behind and backwards when it comes to creating USP's. We are a nation and I potentially even say, you know, even the majority globally, we're very behind because we're so stuck in our ways around how we describe ourselves and we haven't yet found a new way to articulate what makes us different because we're regurgitating all of the same, same old stuff. So if you can grasp this concept now and really innovate and create something that's truly unique to your business and you can productize that is going to position you way ahead very, very quickly beyond everyone else in your market doing what you do. Now in the coming episodes, I'm going to be talking with some of my previous and current clients around the unique magic, but it's they've created and the impact that it's had on their business.

(29:18)
But I just wanted to talk about one in particular to give you a great example of how it's enabled them to become a market leader. And that is talk about EverTrek. Who is an adventure travel company, taking people to places I ever space camp Kilimanjaro and other tall high mountains. And when I first started working with the business, I really wanted to look at this key point of differentiation. What is it that stands them apart from the, you know, competitors, you have the, almost the monopoly on these types of trips. And we looked at the way in which EverTrek helps their customers. And one of the biggest points, not necessarily a difference, but the things that they are really passionate about was preparing the customers mentally and practically before they even got on their trip. Because they believe that by doing that they are going to be more successful in actually reaching their goal of the base camp.

(30:26)
Or the peak or summit by being mentally prepared for it both in their mindset but also in terms of equipment and how to deal with things like altitude sickness. And we were looking at all of these things because the rest of the market, yes they were throwing out a few blogs around it, but it was more about, okay, so this is, this is what you're doing. And the rest of them are mainly booking people onto trips. That's their service. They are providing this extra element on top of that. You're doing all of that and more so how can we productize that part of it? Now this might sound very obvious with lots of people listening. But this is, this is going to surprise you and it's also going to delight you because it's going to give you some hope that you can do something equally as groundbreaking but also very easy.

(31:22)
So we looked at it and thought, okay, so how can we productize this? Let's create a trip planner and my other half had this amazing idea of personalizing the planner, he's all into is personalization and I'm sure we're going to have him on the show at some point talking about personalization because it's something that's seriously a game changer for that business as well. But we came up with the idea of putting all of that into this trip planner with checklists, with information, preparing them mentally for every step of the way, both before and during and off the treks so that they could have a truly successful trip. We put all of that into this trip planner and we looked around who else is offering it? Guess what? No one else is. No one else is offering it. Well at the time we created it, who knows?

(32:09)
More people might have jumped on the bandwagon, but the thing is what EverTrek have done is that they have jumped on this and they have leveraged this key point of difference. They are number one, so everyone else who is now jumping on the bandwagon, I'll stop the seconds. When you're the first to do something, you're always a winner and only by the way, if you build momentum, if you leverage that, if you come up with the idea and it sits on a bit of paper or it goes on the said, if you don't blow your trumpet, if you don't put it out there in the F at the forefront of your marketing, then yes, you'll probably go unnoticed and you will be that really sad person. Like you know the people in the Guinness book of records going, well I did that first well, sorry mate, you didn't say you didn't record it, you didn't put it out there.

(33:01)
And so that's a key lesson here is that if you're going to create something as powerful as that, you've got to run with it and you've got to put your all into pushing it out there to your market and really making a big deal out of it. Because if you don't, then someone else is going to come and take that idea and run with it instead. And you don't want that to happen. So yes, you can. You know, we've copyrighted a lot of things. We've got trademarks and so and so forth, but you cannot trademark a concept. So it's, you do have to make sure that you, if you're going to use it, use it, really, really run with it. Because this trip planner is shared everywhere on social media, within the trekking circles. Everyone is so pleased to get the trip pan and they're posting pictures of that personalized planner on social media saying they're so excited to dive in.

(33:54)
It's shareable. People are talking about it. It's become that key point of difference that is easily understood and goes, okay, that's exactly why I want to work with you. To the point where we had a group of people not so long ago sacrifice their deposits that they'd paid for another company and said, okay, well we're going to say goodbye to that money cause it's nonrefundable because we want to come with you. We want to pay your deposits again and we want to come on your trip. Because of things like this trip planner, the trip planner of being, one of the key reasons why they did make that move. So it's talked about, it's shared. People love it. People know EverTrek because of this particular planner that they can get hold of because they know they're going to have a much more successful trip if they do.

(34:39)
The science behind it is the fact that they're preparing both mentally and practically mindset and getting their equipment together and so on and so forth. They have all of the substance behind the reasons to why that USP works, why that unique project. But it works. And we've, in the last eight months since actually creating that planner, we've generated over a million pounds in turnover. And that's gone from being, you know, a multi-six-figure. Absolutely. I think probably on the, on the lower end of that, if I remember rightly, but our profit has shot up through creating this unique magic bullet and pushing this at the forefront of the marketing. It's been one of the best decisions EverTrek has ever made is to do this. And you have to re innovate. You cannot rest on your laurels. And this is probably for another episode where I'll be talking about how to create point of difference that then stays.

(35:41)
But one of the biggest spoilers I'll give you on it is you've got to keep innovating. Don't rest on your laurels. You have to keep going. You have to keep improving. And re innovating that USP in order to keep it alive and well. So there we go. I hope I've inspired many of you to go and have a think about how you can start productizing and creating your own unique magic but it for your business so that you can push it to the fore front of your marketing, leverage it and create that market leading USP that's really gonna stand you apart from the rest of the saturate saturation, uh, get you more market share and more market recognition. I'm really am excited for you. As always, I want to hear from you if you've had any aha moments, any penny drop moments, please do ping me an email jen@jen-hall.com . The email address will be in the show notes as well.

(36:39)
And remember if it's something that you'd like to discuss on creating your own unique magic bullet, I helped many, many, many, many clients do exactly that, that have been extremely successful with it. So if you'd like to discuss about, around creating that together, then remember you can book a call with me via bit.ly/claritycallpodcast. The link is in the show notes. You can just go in there and book your call in straight away. I really am excited to hear from many of you who are listening and also perhaps speaking to a few of you as well. Have a fantastic day and I will see you in the next episode.