ElectroPulse
ELECTROPULSE NEWSLETTER #19, OCT/NOV 2009
Positioning Your Services Effectively To Clients
Positioning includes identifying the unique selling proposition, or "niche market" that your organization fits into. Unless you’re Wal-Mart, chances are, “one stop shop” is probably not effective positioning. Every medium sized company has a specific set of strengths. First, you must find out what your strengths are, and this is accomplished through market analysis.
Market Analysis Includes:
- Researching the existing market
- Finding out what that market’s needs are
- Discovering what your competitors are doing
- And finally, determining which market needs match your strengths
Once you've chosen your target customer and the needs you plan to fulfill, the next step is to create a unique selling proposition (USP) for your product or service.
Unique Selling Proposition
Years ago, a company called Federal Express came up with a new concept: delivering packages overnight. Until FedEx came along, if you wanted to ship a small package to the next city, you had to hand the small package over to the bus company, post office, or airline. It might have taken several days to deliver a package because the airlines were in the business of moving people and/or large cargo, not small packages. All FedEx had to do was convince the public that they could deliver packages in a convenient and speedier fashion – with their own planes! So what was the unique selling position that FedEx chose? “We have our own planes”. This (pardon the pun) didn't fly with the public.
People didn't get it. "So you have your own planes," they said. "What does that mean to me?"
FedEx went back to the drawing board and came up with this:
"When you absolutely, positively have to have it overnight." That worked. The public responded, and the rest is written up in marketing case studies and handy Technology Marketing newsletters in BC.
Do your research (sometimes someone external who does not have a company bias can help you with this), tie your existing strengths to the market, and announce your USP in a way that resonates with your market!
Examples
To create your own unique proposition statement, you first must determine who your ideal clients are. What are their specific and unique needs? What benefits can you provide that they can't get from your competitors? For some examples, here are USPs that represent Dena Technologies:
* "We help (my target market) get to market faster."
* "We help (my target market) make smart decisions about their production timeline, so they can spend more time solving problems and less time putting out fires."
* "We give (my target market) peace of mind."