market

Over dinner on Sunday some one asked me; “What new course have you got for the times?”

Ah! The downturn discussion! I thought about this and chimed “something on concentrating on your core business and market your way forward with strong selling points and customer service”.

Somewhere in the back of my mind a lamp flickered and lit up the remarkable story of Andrew Cook who in the late 1970s early 80s transformed William Cook, a well established family manufacturer of steel castings, into a market leader when all was against him.

At that time the economy was dismal, dark and uninviting. Output in the industry had been falling for a number of years. But Cook on taking over the company went completely against the trend an invested in increased efficiency, quality and capacity in the least value segment – all at a time when capacity was double the amount of industry sales. Rivals thought he was mad. Indeed conventional thinking would have dictated that Cook milk the business and leave the industry or go into a higher value and differentiated niche.

Remember too that Cook’s didn’t have the image of a Mercedes or an IBM amongst its customers. Neither was it a technological leader, nor did it possess some secret process to guarantee extra income. Nonetheless, Andrew Cook backed his intuition. In a few months his efforts began to yield results.

His investment in a hostile environment transformed the business. Within a few years sales had risen 10% against industry losses. He was the first to invest in BS5750. Within a couple of years he had acquired two of his major competitors and by the ‘90s he had become the market leader.

“What did he do?” you ask. It’s really quite straightforward. He understood his customers. He recognised the value they wanted. His improvements saved customers money which naturally increased demand for his product. Thus Cook generated a double advantage – higher value and lower cost.

When others saw what he had achieved they changed too. They sought to catch up and invoked intense battles … but that’s another story.
For more on how to manage in difficult times why not check out our coaching and workshop programmes in Services

So once you have found your HUNGRY CROWD …WHAT next?

The trick is to find a distinguishing benefit that conveys the problem you will solve or the “want” you’re trying to satisfy that sets you apart from your competitors. This benefit – or unique selling point (usp) is the foundation for your business for it defines what you do or say. In short it helps you:

• Attract and keep customers
• Accelerate market diffusion
• Create a point of difference
• Fill a perceived gap in the market place
• Motivate prospects and customers to act

There are many examples of this type of ‘selling point.’ Only the other day I overheard a major financial institution marketing its high interest bearing ISAs with the message; ‘finding ideas for your money!”

How to come up with a winning offer
The challenge is to explain or to present in conversation and in literature, COMPELLINGLY, what you do to provide a major advantage to your customers that your competitors don’t, or can’t offer and turn this into a few words that offer the means to GRAB your prospects’ attention.

Here’s one way – a 5 step USP generator …

1. Find the problem people have most trouble with …
2. Identify the implications of the problem … ’which means …’
3. Define your solution … ’well, what we do is …’
4. Describe the benefit of your solution …
5. Distil the results down and find the few compelling words that make the difference.

So use the USP generator, it will help you find in a WORD; the solution customers want most and it will help you to stand your business head and shoulders above its rivals.

Points To Remember Are:

• Build a business around a HUNGRY CROWD for whom you offer value with a pipeline of products.

• Prospects and customers have got to see and understand why they should buy from you and how you are different from your competitors, so find the COMPELLING WORDS that will do this for you.