Develop Your Unique Sales Proposition, or Get Caught in the Commodity Trap

Attracting qualified sales leads and retaining customers in today’s industrial markets is tough. The competition is intensifying as B2B manufacturers compete for a shrinking pool of prospects.?

It takes more than a flashy website and emails to win in the manufacturing marketing arena. After all, your competitors are using digital to pitch similar products to your target client base.

Manufacturing brands earn new customers not because they have superpowers, but because they use Unique Value Propositions (UVP) as a secret weapon.?

Here’s how a strong UVP reduces the risk of your solution falling into the commodity trap.

Create a UVP and Deliver with Precision in 3 Seconds

Know the three-second rule – no, not the rule about food dropping on the floor.

In digital marketing, the three-second rule focuses on the attention span of website visitors: Your UVP has about three seconds to capture the attention of prospects when they land on your website.

Is it possible to capture attention in three seconds? Yes, very possible. Look at the implicit UVPs for IBM, Cummins, and Vendavo in the headlines on their websites:

Even with tight messaging, three seconds is not a lot of time to pitch your value. So let’s talk about how you can develop your company’s UVP and avoid the commodity trap that so many manufacturers are falling into.

First: What is a Unique Value Proposition?

UVPs clearly express the distinct selling points of your solution to potential customers. They should be concise, but more than a tagline or slogan. Highlight your solution’s unique benefits, why your customers should choose you over competitors, and how your solution will resolve their specific pain points.

How a Good UVP Sets Your Company Apart

• It differentiates your brand. Your unique value proposition helps your target audience understand how your product is different from (and better than) competitors. Higher pricing becomes less of a hurdle if you convey your solution's unique characteristics.
• It aligns your solution with your consumer’s needs. Messaging a strong value prop communicates that your solutions are an ideal match for the needs of your customer base.
• It attracts your ideal B2B customers. An effective UVP targets your ideal customer personas, optimizing your marketing efforts to focus content and messaging on their needs. The result: Leads generated by inbound traffic are more qualified, and new prospects are more inclined to make a purchase.

How to Avoid Becoming a Commodity

The “commodity trap” is like an ocean riptide: Once you get too close to it, there seems to be no escape, and you feel doomed.?

In manufacturing, an industrial company falls into the commodity trap when its competitive position is dragged into the ordinary until it no longer commands premium pricing.

To avoid or escape the commodity trap, you must leverage the power of your company’s unique value proposition to differentiate your solutions from those offered by competitors.

Answer These 3 Questions

• Do you look like other manufacturers?
• Do you sound like your competitors?
• Do you sell the same products?

Bad news: If the answer to these questions is “yes,” you’re in the riptide. The good news? Keep reading and you’ll learn how to escape.

3 Steps to Positioning Products with a UVP

Crafting a value proposition for your manufacturing company positions your products and strategies better and involves these 3 steps:?

1. Understand your audience of target customers. Learn their needs, pain points, and frustrations.
2. Understand your competition. Research and learn how they are positioning, whom they are focusing on, whom they are neglecting, and where the gaps/opportunities are.
3. Outline the benefits of your solution. Define the key components that deliver value for customers.

Convey Your Value Proposition and Repeat

Before conveying your value proposition to your target audience, there is one more thing you will need to do: Define your brand personality.

Brand personality is simply the personification of your brand. It gives human qualities to your brand so that it has voice, color, and many more attributes that evoke different emotions in your target audience.?

Defining a brand’s personality does not come naturally or easily. You must first understand your audience archetypes, identify the role of your brand, and define your brand voice.?

Once this foundation is in place, it becomes easier to message and convey your value proposition.

Combine Great Messaging and a High-Performance Website

Consider this: 80% of B2B sales activity will occur on digital channels by 2025, according to a Gartner survey.?

Want to know a secret? All of those digital channels will lead your audiences right back to your website. That’s why it’s important to place your UVP front and center, high up in the top fold of your landing pages.?

Sure, you’ll use variations of your UVP on social media, email, printed materials, and more. But when each of these leads to your B2B website, your UVP should be consistent and support each inbound audience.?

Deliver What Your Web Audience Expects

The greatest UVP will fall flat if the messaging on your website fails to captivate them, or if poor performance delivers a sub-par user experience. Your customers expect a great web experience because they compare your B2B website with premium B2C websites they’re more used to in everyday life.?

The newest generation of B2B buyers grew up with their heads down on websites and smartphones. In fact, 73% of potential customers in the B2B buyer journey are millennials, according to a Forrester report.?

These are tech-savvy users landing on your website with high-performance expectations. And Gen Z isn’t far behind.

That means your website pages need to load fast, run smoothly, and be mobile friendly with responsive design so that the browsing experience isn’t compromised by a bad connection or smaller screen size.

Keep It Simple

Don’t worry about oversharing your value proposition. Remember, repetition is critical in getting potential customers to remember you and seek out your brand.

Focus on three things:?

• Create that unique value proposition
• Frame it in compelling messaging?
• Maintain a high-performance website?

At DBS, we've leveraged these tactics and more to help global industrial clients like Kao Collins, Methods Machine Tools, and Arrow Cryogenics reach new levels of growth and success.

Want your business to be next? Let us know.