Your Unique Buying Advantage; and how to use it to skyrocket your store’s sales.

If you read marketing books; almost any marketing book, it will talk about your USP or Unique Selling Proposition. This is the one thing that the customer sees that sets you apart from your competition. Usually this is a Huge Promise of some sort.

The most well known example is this; “Fresh hot pizza delivered in 30 minutes or it’s free”. That promise propelled Domino Pizza to world pizza dominance. Notice it didn’t say “World’s Greatest Pizza”.

The secret is in knowing what customers really want. In delivered pizza it wasn’t low price, lots of toppings, a catchy jingle, or even a good pizza. It was “Fresh hot pizza delivered fast”. There was even a guarantee at the end.

“Or it’s Free”, is one of the best uses of a guarantee in an ad, an ad headline, or a Unique Selling Proposition.

Why do I prefer the term “Unique Buying Advantage”? Because we should always concentrate on what the customer wants to buy, not what we think they ought to buy.

Now, this is not the same as a “Mission Statement”. A Mission Statement is about what you are trying to do in your business. Another topic for another newsletter.

Your Unique Buying Advantage is why the customer should buy from you rather than every other alternative. Your UBA should be so persuasive that your customer (from their point-of-view) would have to be brain dead to even consider buying from someone else.

Your UBA must:

1. Instantly tell people the benefit of buying from you.

2. Be Specific

3. Be Concise

4. Cause the customer to say “Wow. How do they do that?”

Customers should have to think about what you do. There should be no guessing.

Here are some bad examples of a UBA;

“Just do it!”

“We try harder”

“Where’s the beef?”

“We really care”

These are bad because they aren’t specific. Nobody reads these & says “Wow! I want that.”

If your message shows a strong buying advantage, your price will be secondary.

Claude’s law – “If you have no Unique Buying Advantage, the customer will be forced to buy based on price.”

Your UBA can be made into a headline for your ads. It can even become your company name….

Cheryl & I recently had new floors put in our kitchen and dining room. The company that did it is called

3 DAY KITCHEN & BATH.

How’s that for a name?! The benefit of buying from them is in their name.

What they do is in their name.

Why do people call this company? They want the work done fast.

3 days is fast for a new kitchen or bathroom.

Nobody calls these guys because they want the lowest price. I know I didn’t. They built a library full of Birch bookcases and a kitchen-dining room floor in two days.

Their work was excellent.

I gave them a tad over $12,000.

I could have had my brother-in-law do it over a month for less that half.

I bought speed.

Printers have a saying “Quality-Speed-Price; Pick any two”.

Some customers will pay a premium price for speed or quality. Some will care only for price. Which customer do you want? You can’t be all things to all people. And don’t say you have the lowest prices, best quality, and fastest service…nobody will believe it.

Your UBA will take a little thought.

Who are you trying to attract?

What is the main benefit to them?

How are you different from the other retailers?

Here are a few good examples;

“Your vacuum cleaner serviced within 48 hours or it’s free!” Appeals to the desire for fast service.

“We don’t give tricky estimates. You never pay more than agreed” Ever get an estimate & then the cost is twice as much? We all have that fear. This is a promise that won’t happen.

“We sell $800 vacuum cleaners for $350” This appeals to the quality buyer and the price buyer…just not the lowest price buyer.

“Picks up 100% of the pet hair or we buy it back!” A simple “satisfaction guaranteed” promise made stronger.

“Before you buy, call our free recorded consumer helpline. Learn the 7 things to look for in your next vacuum cleaner” Funnels the reader into your recorded message. They then feel like you gave them information, and they come in. It always works to generate a profit, and almost nobody does this.

“Be safe and toasty warm for only $1.67 a day” gives a big promise and lots of benefits for a nominal daily cost.

Many UBAs involve guaranteed speedy service (always with a specified time) or a guarantee of some sort.

Financing can also be a USB. But if you have local competitors that also finance, it won’t be as effective.

What’s better than a Unique Buying Advantage?

Lot’s of Unique Buying Advantages!

We have a sheet that we hand out that states everything a customer gets when they purchase a specific Brand of vacuum cleaner from us.

Several of these promises could be made into a serviceable USB.

Quality means almost the same thing as confidence. They want to be sure that the product will perform as expected an not cause them a headache. Quality can be summed up as “confidence in the product”.

Selection can mean several things, I suppose. Of course, it means having several models to choose from. I would go further and say it means having the most popular models in stock. That’s what many people want to see.

For example, we sell vacuum cleaners. We are not a Hoover dealer. We get people that ask “Do you sell Hoovers?”, and when I say “NO”, they assume that means I have no inventory, or that I don’t offer a selection. We finally bought several at retail and so when people ask us “Do you have Hoovers?” We can say “Yes, we have several in stock, along with 135 other vacuums. When can you come in to see them?”

The biggest benefit of having a wider selection (including several national brands) is that the customer has the feeling (in the store) that they have shopped.

For example, if you are looking for an appliance; how many models do you really want to look at? 100?

For me it’s about three. Even the most anal retentive Consumer Report toting shopaholic couldn’t stand looking at more than six different models before they get tired of looking and buy.

Service simply means taking care of the customer after they buy. It’s very related to Confidence. In fact, the first four considerations are really about confidence in you and your product, aren’t they?

Price is almost always a consideration, let’s not kid ourselves. But price is only the determining factor in a small percentage of cases.

Do this; Go into the nearest Wal-Mart. Go ahead, you can get to one in less than five minutes unless you live in Alaska. Look at the people shopping there. They aren’t a real cross-section of America. Sure, there is a Doctor or two, an bank vice-president or two, but mostly, these people are lower middle (and not so middle) income people.

And Wal-Mart has more to offer than the perception of the lowest price. They do have a selection and have a liberal return policy.

But when you think of Wal-Mart (now that Sam Walton is gone) you think primarily of “Lowest Price” don’t you?

Anyway, Confidence is what you want to foster in your customer.

Having a liberal return policy will help. In fact, I have never seen an instance where the returns outweigh the increased profits.

A clean store generates confidence.

Referrals from your current customers are a big part of this. Now you have “Borrowed Confidence” from the referrer.

Having a selection to choose from shows that your business is stable & will be here in the future.

Why am I harping about price not being the prime factor in buying?

Read on!...

Because everyone else in your market is advertising the lowest price and almost nothing else.

They are all sharing the same piece of the pie…the lowest profit piece of the pie.

Ads that stress lowest price appeal to roughly 20% of the buying public..the poorest, least profitable 20%.

If you advertise & market “What you do for them” and “What they get when they buy from you” you are now appealing the top 20% of the market. The most profitable 20%.

The other 60% of the market are concerned with a variety of factors, including all five mentioned above.

You can target the top (or bottom) 20%. You can’t target the entire population.

Pick a niche, market to them, and reap the rewards.

Trying to be “everything to everyone” is hard, complicated, and (in my experience) unrewarding.

Which brings up my next point….