Quick Lesson on Researching your USP-The Art of Authority Podcast Ep 7 - Mike Saunders The Authority Positioning Coach

Welcome to the Art of Authority podcast, bringing you interviews and episodes to help you radically optimize your authority and influence to become the go to expert in your field. Here's your host, authority positioning coach, Mike Saunders.

Hey, guys. Mike Saunders, the authority positioning coach with another segment of the Art of Authority. Hey. We've been talking about in this series how to create and define and articulate your competitive advantage. And just as a reminder, it's just something that makes your business and your services stand out, something remarkable. But remember, it doesn't need to be something kooky, wacky, remarkable, just something that is very specific to the solution you provide to your target audience. Well, today we're going to talk about a usp, a unique selling proposition. And that kind of boils down your competitive advantage into a statement. And think about just simplicity. Think about taking whatever you do for your clients in that competitive advantage, which might be maybe a 20 or 30 second elevator pitch kind of a phrase and boiling that down into a tagline or a sentence. So, for instance, one that I use as my unique selling proposition is building your authority as your number one priority. Well, it's got to be easy, it's got to be memorable, maybe catchy. And in reality, building your authority against your competitors, your influence, your prestige, your status should be your number one priority because then everything else falls into place. That trust level comes in because people in your target audience realize that you can be trusted because you're doing things the right way and they're seeing you out there, whether it's producing podcast episodes, being interviewed on podcast episodes. Maybe you're doing Facebook lives, maybe you're teaching, you're not selling. You're not only selling. Now, nothing wrong with saying, hey, you know, grab my whatever package. But you're not only selling, you're teaching, you're advising. You're becoming really an advocate for the your target audience. So let's think about that unique selling proposition and how you can craft one. There's of course a thousand tips, but I'm just going to talk about a couple right here because these are things you can take action on right now. So think about your target audience, your customers, your current clients, and how can you communicate to them to ask their opinion? Do you know that one of the most impactful words in the English language is help? Hey, I need your help. So maybe in the subject line of an email or maybe in a, I don't know, a social media post, you're gonna go, help needed. You know, hey, need your help real quick. Something like That, I mean, just really quick and honest, right? And you just go, hey, you know what, I was just doing some research on my message to market and I was just wondering what was that that you need when you're looking to solve X? You know, think about, you know, something that would be a little bit broad but a little bit more targeted to what your clients are needing, what you're producing and to your clients, right? So don't be so broad. Like, you know, why do you drive a car? You know, that's kind of very broad. So how can you go deep and ask one question you don't want to ask someone, especially in like a social media, you know, when you go, hey, comment below, you don't want to have, you know, a 19 point survey, but if you email something out to your clients, you can have maybe my opinion. Of course everyone can, you know, object or have a different opinion. But maybe three questions, four questions. Because the worst thing in the world is, you know, hey, take this quick survey and you know, 14 questions in it says you're a quarter of the way through and they just bail, right? So you need to think about something really quick. What are three most important questions you would love to know? You know, why did you select me as your service provider for this package or this service? And listen to what they say in their responses. Here's another kind of a ninja trick. Do you know that you have competitors, right? You have people that do what you do online, offline? And do you know that some people, some thought leaders in your industry have even written a book maybe not exactly about what you've done, but in your industry? So go over to Amazon or wherever and look at the reviews of the people that bought and read their book. Now why would that be important? Because isn't it true that if someone loved a book, they're going to put down in a review what they loved about it? But what if someone didn't like the book? They're going to put that down as well. So if you can use that as research and look at maybe five or 10 books that are in your niche in your industry vertical and look at some of those reviews, you're gonna find some comments or some phrases or some words that your target audience will be using and you need to start using them as well in your marketing, messaging and your social media posts. But we're talking about this unique selling proposition. If you can see a thread or a theme in some of these comments, whether it's from responses back from your target audience, your recent clients or the book reviews that you're doing that you're reading through, look for some common words, maybe do one of those word cloud. You know, I'm sure you can find a quick free tool where you put in a bunch of words and then you see which ones are the most commonly used and do this word cloud and go, hey, you know what? This word right here or this phrase right here, that's kind of like a recurring theme and that might be that pain point. Well, if you can find that pain point now you can phrase your marketing messaging and your brand messaging to meet that need. Now what does that do do from the position of creating that trust with someone, they, that target audience knows that you understand them and you don't even need to say the words, hey, I understand you. Because no, you just talk, you know, you go, hey, you know what? I know a lot of you struggle with the fact that whatever, whatever that is, fill in the blank, right? But you know what, here's some things, here's some tips that I would like to bring to your attention that could really help you out. And if you need to go deeper, if you need any more help, hey, hit me up, comment below or shoot me an email or visit my website. I'm happy to help. Do you see where this research, whether it's directly to your target audience, your clients, or Amazon book reviews for similar books in your industry, that research can help you determine what your products or services focus in. The messaging needs to be. Now when you have all of that done and this is not a long drawn out process, but definitely do more than just one attempt, you know, you need to give it the old college try. Once you have that, it'll be very simple to come up with that one or two line unique selling proposition. So when you think about the authority positioning platform, your platform is what your brand messaging is. Your authority message to market is what you do to help your clients or prospects, your not only your competitive advantage, but there's a lot of things that go into that. So we're, we're talking about this first stage, the authority positioning platform, what it is and how you do it. When you come up with that and you can have that competitive advantage fine tuned and then you come up with that unique selling proposition, that tagline now that's ready to get out there to your market in very strong and precise ways, however you decide to. It might be in your next press release, it might be in your next blog post, it might be in your next social media post, or it might be in your two or three page, you know, overview, one sheet. Of course, if it's a three pages, not a one sheet, but it could be front and back or it could be a trifold, but it could be that flyer where the headline is really just reaching out and grabbing them. And that tagline is really taking it to the next level. So think about what you can do to really fine tune that unique selling proposition. And until next time, remember, building your authority is your number one priority. Make it a great day.

You've been listening to the Art of Authority podcast. Are you interested in building your authority positioning as the number one strategy to grow your business, brand and influence? Book your authority audit today. This seven point audit of your current authority position will uncover opportunities and show you how to be seen as a leading expert and authority your industry looks to. For advice, visit www.awarenesspositioningcoach.com.