Emotional selling in B2B Tech (USP vs. ESP)

Discover the difference between a Unique Selling Proposition vs. an Emotional Selling Proposition, why they are important and where your brand currently sits within the framework.

"Nobody ever got fired for buying IBM"

We doubt there is anyone in the tech industry who doesn't remember this one.

But why? What was so special about it that we still remember it more than 20 years later?

The answer is simple: it offered an emotional benefit ("You won't get fired") over a?functional / rational one (e.g. "Our servers are 99.9999% reliable").

In the famous words of Maya Angelou: "People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did but people will never forget how you made them feel."

Brands, products and services can be classified within a USP vs. ESP matrix, containing 4 quadrants. It’s important to know where you currently sit within this and where you want to go (Hint: the answer is at the end)

Commodities ??

Brands, products and services with low functional and low emotional differentiation.

Think: high-speed internet, low-cost flights.

Many brands in mature markets end up here.

This is NOT where you want to be.

Lovers ??

Brands, products and services with low functional but high emotional differentiation.

Think: jeans, smartphones, marketing automation.

Many of the leading B2C brands are in this quadrant.

Inventors ??

Brands, products and services with high functional but low emotional differentiation.

Think: Cloud Data Warehouse, Single-Sign-On.

Many B2B disruptors are stuck in this quadrant. It tends to be the default; you invent something new, you focus on functional differentiation but miss the importance of the emotional.

Stars ?

Brands with high functional and high emotional differentiation.

Think: All Electric Supercar (Tesla), Revenue Intelligence (Gong).

THIS IS WHERE YOU WANT TO BE!

That said, the natural movement of every market is towards low functional differentiation because competition eventually catches up. With that in mind, it’s better to end up a Lover than a Commodity.

What's your ESP?

Atreo is the global leader in Narrative Design for B2B Tech. We believe technology must be understood to be effectively told.

Specializing in Strategic and Visual Narrative Design, Category Design, Positioning, Messaging and Branding, Atreo has built brands for top tech companies such as JFrog, Gong, Quantum Metric, Similarweb, Overwolf, Gloat, Firebolt and many more.

Connect with Atreo on LinkedIn or get in touch.