Sales Training Tip: Forget the USP – Get with the CVP!
USP in Sales
For years sales training has been training on the development of the features and benefits of your product and service as a core skill in sales. This is absolutely right because you have to know how your products add value to the other person and their company.
The culmination of the developement of the features and benefits list was the ultmimate ‘elevator pitch’, the Unique Selling Proposition (USP). The principal behind the USP in sales is that it is the one biggest attribute of your company, product or service that above all else defines why a company should do business with you.
USP in sales example
The classic example quoted everywhere is that of Dominos Pizza. This was something like:
“Hot, fresh, Pizza, delivered to your door in 30 minutes or less or its free”
Tom Monaghan, the founder of Dominos cites that one USP alone as a major part in projecting them from almost closure to the worldwide organisation they are today.
Very often, in my sales consulting and sales training I find that the very fact that sales staff can articulate the top three benefits of doing business with their company is enough for them to stand head and shoulders above the competition.
In the information age that we are in, most prospective customers or clients have a wealth of information at their finger tips and very often know as much as many sales people about the products/services or Industry.
That is why you should not be focusing on the USP but the CVP.
USP in Sales : The CVP
The CVP is the Customer Value Proposition.
Let’s face it, with a few exceptions, most clients don’t care about what you can do for then other than what you can do for them that will help them win more business. They want to know how you can help them with their value proposition. Yes, I know you may think you supply admin support or some traditionally ‘dull’ service that t everyone needs like printing, but in reality you are not.
What you are providing is a way for that client to win more business and be more profitable. This can be through greater efficiency leading to greater price competitiveness or more revenue to spend on marketing or an increased level of service.
When you are out and about in your role as a professional salesperson start to think not of your USP in sales but your CVP, you will find doors opening far more easier for you.
5 Comments
I found your site on technorati and read a few of your other posts. Keep up the good work. I just added your RSS feed to my Google News Reader. Looking forward to reading more from you down the road!
a very clever idea to have a Customer Value Proposition
it will surely very useful for the company
for it will surely increase the sales of the company
CVP is a great change from USP. I find that new clients talk about their USP and it is more often some kind of clever quip meant to get attention rather than to communicate anything of value. Ironically, the USP is often easy to forget because it does not have lasting relevance to the prospect.
This is true but I still like USPs. I think that the beauty of the USP is in it’s simplicity. I recall a famous public speaker once saying that if you couldn’t write down your message on the back of a business card you hadn’t understood it. Therefore if the message is too long and complicated it’s not going to communicate well and somehow the essence hasn’t been understood because the essence is always simple.
All that said, I do agree that today it’s about the CVP. I just think that salespeople should still work on their USPs if they can’t write it on the back of one of their business cards.
Hi Roz, Great to see you here. I agree that it clarity of the message and that can be fantastically combined with the value you offer. The toughest question to answer is “Why should I use you?”