How WOW Are You?

If I had a pound for every time someone told me their USP (Unique Sales Proposition) and I thought to myself there is absolutely nothing unique about it, I would be a millionaire. 

The USP is meant to be what separates you.

You see your USP has to be real and it has to be about you. 

Going hand in hand with your USP is your WOW. 

Your WOW is the emotional signal to your customers in the same way that the USP is the logical signal to your customers. 

And again, if I had a pound for every WOW I hear that was underwhelming, I would be very wealthy. 

Actually most people I ask to tell me their WOW, don't have a WOW. 

So not only is the USP bland, but the wow is underwhelming. 

Now the USP comes from what's unique about you. 

Your USP comes from what people will experience when they are working with you or buying something from you. 

Money back guarantee, great example of a USP, it's not that unique these days, but it's powerful. 

John Lewis 'never knowingly undersold', amazing, that's part of their process, that's a completely unique thing that they owned and it was because their process of procuring products meant that they were confident that they were never knowingly undersold. 

With WOWs it's a lot more complicated because first of all, not a lot of people have a WOW, people are only starting to wise up to the emotional impact that we have on clients and customers, to the emotional impact that our clients and customers expect from us in the product or service we are offering them. 

So where the USP has to be real from the process of working with you. 

The WOW has to be a real impact outcome after the event. 

It needs to blend a few different elements and pack a punch that says to people, this is the pain you're in, this is how we uniquely solve the pain and WOW this is what happens next. 

The WOW needs to speak to the customer's aspirations. 

Why is this a problem? 

Well we get complacent, we do. 

As human beings, as business owners, as marketing directors, we get complacent. 

That's how it's always been therefore that's how it will always be. 

And not only do we get complacent, but we feel entitled.

We settle for mediocrity, we put out and ship substandard products and services. 

We feel entitled to the business. 

We were here first. 

We're bigger than them. 

We're cheaper. 

We're better. 

We've won more awards. 

I can't tell you how many meetings I've sat in with leadership teams where they astonishingly literally said that we deserve the business. 

We deserve the business. 

It really is ludicrous. 

And that's why we have USPs and WOWs, because it's no good you saying to someone we deserve the business, because they don't care. 

They don't care what you deserve. 

No one cares what you deserve. 

It's a business. 

The USP and the WOW though will stand you up to the customer and hopefully differentiate you. 

We have to stretch into real value, into real meaning, into real difference, and ultimately into real impact. 

We have to do that because anything less means we're going to blend in with everybody else. 

If our USP is not truly unique, we're just going to blend in. 

If our WOW is not overwhelming, we're just going to blend in. 

And it's as easy as that. 

Make your unique selling proposition, unique. 

And make your WOW, WOW.