What is your USP?

Business Brain, episode 507 for Casual Friday, December 8, 2023. Greetings, folks, and welcome to business brain, the show where we take a few ideas each episode, we crunch them, we analyze them, we use them to tune our business brains every single time we get together. Sponsors for this week include Shopify.com BusinessBrain, where you can go and sign up for your $1 per month trial, and Fastmail.com BusinessBrain, where you CAN go to get 10% off your first year of this great email provider that I've been using for about seven years. We'll talk more about each of those in a little bit. For now, here in Durham, New Hampshire, I'm Dave Hamilton and I'm still out.

Here in Lafayette, California. I'm Shannon. Gene. Happy Friday.

Happy Friday. We're working for the weekend. Man, I don't even know what that means. Yeah.

Some song or something, right?

It was a song. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

You got it. Got it. So I. I wanted to do a little business therapy with you.

Okay.

Concept that I've been working on. I want to create a graphic, and I wanted to get your feedback on what, you know, your thoughts on it.

Okay.

It's worth. Worth. So the concept is like a people pyramid. And we. We've talked about it on the show a lot about creating your own private board of advisors kind of thing, and we've also talked about people you don't want to have in your life. Right. Negative or whatever they say or. So my concept, this idea is to build a pyramid, like a people pyramid for entrepreneurs, kind of like the food pyramid. I know we know that's not a true thing anymore, but that same concept with. At the base that's the widest is the people you want to surround yourself with the most.

Yeah.

As you, as you move up, those people are going to change. And as you get to the very peak of the pyramid, those are the people you want to be around the least.

Oh.

So give you some, you know, idea of like, okay, at. Let's. Let's start at the base very, you know, wide. Lots of room. You're gonna. You're gonna put lots of your time and effort in there.

Yeah.

And those are going to be what I would call your supporters. Right.

Right. Okay.

Maybe it's your. Hopefully it's your good friends, your family. Your family, your spouse.

People. Yeah.

The people that, that you can be vulnerable with. That they're not going to squ. You know, stomp on your dreams or whatever it is. Maybe it's Your business partner. And maybe there's, you know what, whoever else in there, but that those are your true supporters, the people that would fall on the sword for you no matter what, how many times you try and fail and try again, they're going to be there for you. The next stop up would be like your advisors, you know, your accountant, maybe a mentor you're working with. Maybe it's your, I don't know, maybe you want your attorney in there. Maybe I. Depends on the person, but a little less time. But you need those people anyway.

Sure, sure. Yeah, I see what you're saying. Yeah. That the, I don't want to call them necessary evils, but, you know, they're necessaries. They are the necessaries. Yeah. They're not necessarily evil, but. Yeah, yeah, yeah, right.

They can be.

They can't be. That's the thing. Maybe they move up the, up the. Up the pyramid.

That's correct. Because I have my own, you know, belief. So it's maybe, maybe the way to do it is here's my people pyramid.

Yeah.

Where do, where do you fit? You know, how do you set it up?

Yeah, right.

Instead of just because it's always based on my experience. So yeah, the next, you know, section of the pyramid that's a little more narrow up there would be kind of your industry peers, you know, people you've done business with, maybe your vendors, you know, suppliers, people you go to see at a trade show. You're learning from them. You don't spend a ton of time. Maybe they're your competitors, but you are around them a little bit, but you don't want to focus on them too much. And then the next one, which is a little bit narrow, it's. We're only one away from the top. And this is kind of where I put bankers, attorneys, insurance.

That's the necessary evil.

Yeah. Cause I don't, I don't. That's not my. Now I have a couple of attorney people that are awesome. So I would slot them in lower where I would spend more time. But my typical thought process is you want to be around bankers and attorneys the least amount of time, maybe not the least, because there's one more category of folks that are at the very, very tip and the very top of the pyramid, right at the point is where you put the naysayers, the non believers and the vampires. And those are the people that tell you you're not going to make it, that don't believe in you. You know, they, they think you're flaky. Because you keep trying new things and maybe you failed at 8 out of 10 of them or 9 out of 10 of them. But that one thing is the home run you've been looking for. And I also put in the vampires, the people that take and take and don't understand reciprocity. And I've had a lot of these folks in business that would constantly ask for things but never really get the concept that it's a two way street. You got to help each other out. So my thought process is to build this image, this graphic so I could share this concept a little more. Do you think I missed anybody or have I misplaced anybody on this pyramid?

No, I think you were, it's interesting as you were pulling this together or as you were describing it, like I too thought of the vampires at the top, right? Because it like that's what happens is, you know, those, those people, we have a song in this band I playing called Bitter Pill called Too Many Vampires. And it's about that, right? The people that, that are not great, you know, they just want to take and take and take and aren't, aren't interested in, in reciprocity. So yeah, while we've been having this conversation, I've been trying to seed chatgpt with making this, this image. And if anybody is watching on the video, you'll see there is a vampire at the top. I'm not. So like it needs more prompting. It's not what I've, what I've created is not great but, but you know, there's, there's a world here.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

You're onto something well dressed people at the bottom, their clothing gets more tattered towards the top and then, and then at the very top, of course is a vampire.

Yeah, yeah, like that. I like the concept and it's just something that I've, you know, I've been thinking about a lot because our network of people is so important to our success, right. And you want those people around you that are really lifting you up and you want to lift them up right? At the same time you're, you're, you're all trying to help each other grow. But there are some folks that don't quality fit that qualification. So you got to slot them in and you got to, and I'm, I'm hoping this could be a tool that would help you identify, you know, not, not all attorneys go in the super, you know, the top slot, but some will. Especially if somebody's, you know, hey, we're gonna, you, you're, I Mean, you know, we've gotten letters from attorneys that are just jerks.

Oh, yeah. I. I like this. Because if you have this concept in your head, you can then think about when you, when you encounter someone new.

Where do they fit?

Where do they fit? And you can immediately. And you don't want to judge a book by its. I mean, there's, there's like, you don't want to be prejudicial about this just. Just because someone's an attorney. They belong, you know, with the vampires at the top.

But probably.

But probably. Yeah, right. Exactly. But, like, thinking about this could be a really efficient way of saying, okay, wait a minute. This person that I've just encountered, I know that I need them. Right. Because you do. You, like the bankers is a great example. And attorneys another one. I know that I need these people in my life, but I need to limit the amount of time I spend with them. And so thinking about them in that pyramid really could help you over, you know, a longer period of time, craft your, you know, your. The people with. With whom you spend time.

Yeah. And how much time you want to spend. Right.

This is valuable. Yeah.

I think I'm still flushing it out, but if you know our listeners, you'll certainly hear from this or hear about this concept more. I'm going to put a little bit more effort into in the coming weeks and push it out there, so we'll see if we get some more feedback on it. Love to hear from you. Feedbackusinessbrain show. Tell me what you think of this people pyramid.

All right. You know, when I started podcasting or really any of my businesses, having an online store was the farthest thing from my mind. And I'm sure that's true for, for many of you. And now I'm selling merch and all kinds of things in our Shopify store because it's so easy with Shopify. Shopify is the global commerce platform that helps you sell at every stage of your business. From the launcher online shop stage. Right. Like where we all kind of start, even though we didn't even expect to start there, to the first real life store stage or, you know, we just hit a million orders stage. Shopify is there to help you grow. And whether you're selling shipping supplies or promoting productivity programs like we do here, Shopify helps you sell everywhere. From their all in one e commerce platform to their in person pos wherever and whatever you're selling, Shopify's got you covered. And you can sell more with less thanks to Shopify Magic. Your AI powered All Star what I love about Shopify is it it doesn't matter how big or small your business is, right? All of us. You start small. But no matter how big you want to grow, Shopify gives you everything you need to take control and take your business to the next level. This is why Shopify is the global force behind Allbirds, Rothy's and Brooklyn and millions of other entrepreneurs of every size across 175 countries. And you can sign up for a $1 per month trial period at shopify.com/business brain all lowercase. Go to shopify.com businessbrain now to grow your business no matter what stage you're in. Shopify.com businessbrain and our thanks to Shopify for sponsoring this episode all right, now let's chat about something we all use but rarely think about.

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Yeah, it's, you know, it's, it's pretty important that you can think about it really on a basic level. We always talk about not competing on price here. And you don't, you don't want to compete on price. Actually, I want you to raise your prices. And one of the ways you do that is you develop this, you know, unique selling proposition so your customers know why your widget is worth more or worth whatever it is you're selling it. And I found an article up on Jungle Scout. We few years back we had Greg Mercer, the CEO of Jungle Scout. Jungle Scout is a Amazon. There's a platform to help you sell on Amazon for independent sellers. It's unbelievable the amount of data you can get and it's very helpful, highly recommend it. And they had this article about what is a, especially when you're on Amazon, where, let's face it, most people are competing on price and you're stuck on one page and who wins the buy box.

Yeah, this kind of thing. So it's a brutal marketplace. I mean, I, I get that it is a valuable marketplace and people make a lot of money there. But, but you, you're right. You, if you're selling the same exact thing as somebody else, you are competing on price. Like that. That's it. So what, what's different? What's unique about you? What's your competitive advantage? Yeah.

And even Amazon to, to win the buy box, it's not just the lowest price. It is related to the customer feedback, how, how fast you ship your orders, how many returns you're getting. So if you're just trying to dump out orders but you're not following it up with good service, you will not get. Get the buy box.

Interesting. Oh, I didn't realize. I, okay, that's, I mean, as someone who consumes far more than I should from Amazon, that's good to know. I mean, I, I, it's not surprising though, because I generally have a remarkable experience with either things that are like, fulfilled by Amazon directly or, or things that are sent by, you know, externally. Like it, it, if it was in the buy box. It's quality.

They're trying to find the buy box. The concept is, and I'm certainly no expert.

Sure, sure.

Is that you're going to have the best buying experience.

Makes sense.

Even if it's not quite the cheapest. It certainly may well be because that's, that's part of it.

I'm sure price is, is heavier, more.

Heavily weighted than anything 70%. Who knows?

Who knows?

But then I'm sure they adjust their algorithm. But if you have the lowest price, but you're constantly getting returns and complaints and that kind of thing, you, you just, you're going to get bumped from that buy box and somebody else will take it over. So understanding what this unique selling proposition is can really help you, you know, try to stand out and not just get, don't sell widgets and try to sell them for a penny less because it's a losing proposition.

Interesting. All right, so like, like, what are some things that somebody can do to go about, like, how do you take a look at your business to find what that is? And I realized that each business, hopefully if it's a unique selling proposition, hopefully it's different for each person who's listening here. But what's, what's the process you might think about? Yeah.

The first thing to ask yourself is if you're going to sell something, if you can't think of a usp, should you be selling that product? I mean, are you. I've never been in the massive quantity, you know, low profit margin business. Right. That's obvious.

Yeah, right.

That's not my thing.

Right.

I. So, you know, if. So the unique selling proposition, it needs to be specific, it needs to be simple. You need to be able to prove it like with some data. And it has to be something that the customer is going to value. Right. And they break this down up on that Jungle Scout article. You know, you can't just say, oh, our products are made with high quality materials. That's not enough.

You gotta, you gotta be specific about the material if you, if you want to lean in on the materials. Talk about the. Yeah, we use, you know, this certain grade steel to make whatever it is.

Remember the guys dropping like iPhone and iPads out of helicopters?

Yeah.

Show how strong their cases were.

Yeah.

That is a unique selling proposition.

It's a unique marketing angle, for sure. Yeah.

Correct. Or direct dunking something in water. If you're selling something that's going to keep a product waterproof, or if you're trying to, you know, they have an example up here of a company that sells the most basic product you could think of, just plastic that you put around your windows during the winter to help keep the cold Out.

Yep.

And you kind of shrink wrap them with, with a blow hair dryer or whatever.

Yeah.

But they, they break it down to specifics about, hey, low cost installation and draft seal solution to save up to 35% of heat loss.

There you go.

Yeah, we're not, we're not in the plastic business. Right. Remember we talked about brands.

Heat loss. You're in the heat preservation business. Yeah.

In the comfort business, we're going to keep you comfortable.

Right.

And we're going to save you money. So 35% less heat, you know, heat loss. And, and there's some really good examples up there. There's a, you know, in the cookie business, this guy place, you know, enjoy your favorite cookie without added sugar. You know, these kinds of things.

I gotta get some of those.

Yeah, me too. So the second part of it is being simple not to overcomplicate it because you know, you know, how many seconds do you have to gather someone's attention? You know, you gotta make it quick and right to the point. And how can you prove it? You know, if you said your iPhone case is indestructible, it better be indestructible.

Drop it from a helicopter. Yeah.

Or if your, you know, cookies don't have sugar, you need to show it that. Or if you're selling like an energy or a protein drink for working out, you know, show the data and have infographics and back it up. That's what's going to show. And maybe compare it to somebody else's if that's, you know, if you're in a competitive market, which I would say try not to be in a competitive market, but I know that's easier said than done.

Yeah. Well, and even if you don't start in a competitive market, but you find yourself there, that's not necessarily a bad thing in that it means you have, that your business is, is supported and valued. You know, like the general concept of what you do.

Yeah, absolutely.

You know, if you're the only one doing what you do, that's also a time to ask questions like, why do people want to buy this? Like, why do I think people want to buy.

Is it solving a problem?

Yeah.

And that's the kind of, this last part of the USP is what value is it adding to a customer? You know, in the last episode we, we reminded you that we're all in the problem solving business. What problem are you solving for the customer? Like with, with Tech Restore, when we came up with this overnight nationwide repair anywhere in the country. And the way we did it was by getting a box in delivery vans all over the country. This was a long time ago. But that our problem we were solving was people couldn't wait. You can't, you can't wait. Your laptop is your life and it's running your business or it's got your dissertation on it or you're working on for school. So you know, we would pick it up, overnight it, repair it and overnight it back to you. So what is that unique thing that you're doing? And maybe it's, you know, it doesn't have to be earth shattering. Maybe it's a bundle of products you're selling. You know, maybe you don't like go look at cameras, high end cameras on Amazon and you, I would say you be very hard pressed to find a company that just sells the camera. They all bundle things in that they believe you're going to need, make the experience better, stand a case, extra batteries, flash, whatever. It also helps make it to where people have a harder time comparing the price. Because while everybody knows the camera may be 599 or 899, what is the cost of a tripod, the case, the light, whatever. Maybe there's even a training course in there how to take great photos. You get a one month free subscription to whatever, maybe, I don't know. So you can discern your products by bundling or even debundling. For, for years and years I was in the business of buying things and taking them apart and selling the things that no one else was selling.

Right.

You know, so buy a Sony handheld, you know, gaming system that nobody could get screens for. Well, we could buy those, take them apart. And our, our value add or unique selling proposition was you could buy those components from us. You know, so lots of different ways to do it, but it's got to be specific, can't be general, it can't be like a promo, you know, special offer that's not a unique selling proposition.

Right, right. Yeah. Well, because that's just price.

Yeah, price. Yeah, price. And so they've got a great, a great breakdown with some examples, you know, how you do it in product images, how you, you know, and one of the things, and I've been talking about this, kind of related to this, talk about this on the X platform this week is that one of the best ways to stand out is to intersperse your testimonials and your customer reviews in with your product photos. Let me say that again. So you're gonna create, let's say you've got 10 product photos or eight product photos. Well, photo number six should be a screenshot of an incredible testimonial for your product or service. And it doesn't matter if this is on your website, if it's on Amazon, ebay, if it's on Airbnb and you have your, you know, you're renting out a vacation home. Don't make your customers search for your reviews and your testimonials. Take screenshots of them and intersperse them in with your product images on your website, because you know they're going to scroll through. We all scroll through. We've. We've been trained.

Yeah. I want to see the pictures.

Yeah. What's it look like if you redo my kitchen? Okay, these are examples. Oh, what's this? On the third image that I swiped, there's a whole big feedback on, you know, Bob Jones Construction. Unbelievably great. They were on time. Yeah, whatever came in under budget. So you have an opportunity that make yourself stand out instead of just showing photo, photo, photo. Put your testimonial, your reviews in there as you do it. And not really a unique selling proposition, but it does help lift you up above somebody else that's not doing it.

That's really smart. Ah, that's good stuff. Thanks for that. Yeah, no, that's good. That's good.

Yeah, it's great. So we'll link this Jungle Scout article in the show notes and go read it and tell us what you think. Feedbackusinessbrain Show. How do you make your products and services stand out, especially if you're in a crazy competitive market, which scares the heck out of me.

Yeah, absolutely. Feedbackusbrain Show. You can also go to Business Brain and find links to us on X, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon threads, all this stuff. Thanks for hanging out with us. Thanks for tuning your business brain with us and keep on living that charmed life. We'll see you next week.