Help your client to walk a mile in your shoes
What is Value and Solution-Based Selling?
In-short, this refers to convincing a prospect to buy not based on the product itself, but rather the value that your solution offers.
This requires a deep understanding your prospect and your product.
Very few businesses are doing something truly unique, especially in the eyes of the average layman. This means that without the right context, future customers would be hard-pressed to see your new product as anything other than just another app or SaaS software. You need to create a Unique Selling Proposition (USP) that can succinctly describe what sets your product apart.
In a world of homogenous competition, it is vital to know your USP. Price is rarely the only reason why people buy something. If that were the case, Apple would never have become the richest company in the world with estimated reserves of $250 billion.
The question now is: How do we go about finding the elusive USP?
The 4Ps of Marketing
A common framework is to use the four “Ps” of marketing. These are product characteristic, price structure, placement strategy and your promotional strategy. These four “Ps” will allow you to give your startup a market position that truly sets it apart from the competition.
This requires an in-depth understanding of prospects’ needs and wants instead of the product itself. It is vital to put yourself in the shoes of the buyer or customer. Too often, we forget that it is the needs of the user that we need to cater to, not our own. You can’t just build something and hope people use it. This means carefully scrutinizing what your customers want and do.
This means being able to build up comprehension of how others view their product or service, including the needs and wants of prospects. What Unique Perceived Benefits (UPBs) do these prospects see in the product? These UPBs are essentially strong value propositions known as “memory hooks” used to catch attention. These UPBs allow the prospects to recognise the products’ features, advantages and benefits and are what ultimately influence the buyer to make the decision to buy your product.
AMA this month!
Don’t forget to tune into this month’s AMA to get a clear understanding of how to apply this framework and model to your business!
If you’ve got any questions for Charmain, great! Leave them in the comment section below and Charmain will tackle them in her AMA. See you at the AMA on our e27 Facebook Page this month with Charmain!
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