How to CLEARLY Communicate a UVP

Wouldn't it be wonderful if there was a way to quickly and clearly get across your UVP?

There is. Don't try to explain your offering.

What?

Explanations come across as INFObestiy (blah, blah) that goes in one ear, out the other.

The more we try to explain our information, the more confused people become.

And confused people don't say YES and they don't keep listening.

From now on, don't EXPLAIN, SHOW and ASK.

Here's what I mean. I had an opportunity to judge a pitch competition called The Dolphin Tank. As a judge, I reviewed everyone's business plan the night before. One of the competitors had created a hook, called Cargo, you put in your car to hang your purse on.

I initially thought, “Really?! You’re building a business around a hook that holds a purse?”

However, the founder Cari Carter used a brilliant opening that earned our interest.

She carted a full size car seat to the front of the ballroom, set it down on the floor next to her, put her purse and cell phone on it, faced the group, wrapped her fingers around an imaginary steering wheel, and began “driving” while saying:

“Have you ever been driving along and you had to STOP all of a sudden?

Your purse and cell phone fall off the seat onto the floor, and you start scrabbling around trying to retrieve them with one hand while driving with the other hand?

Imagine never having to worry about that again.

Imagine having a hook that you …”

She didn't even have to finish. A man in the audience called out, “I’ll take two. One for my wife, one for my daughter.”

Wow. Cari turned a skeptical “Really?!” to an enthusiastic “I’ll take two” in thirty seconds.

She transformed something with no perceived value into something that instantly captured buy-in. That’s the power of SHOWING AND ASKING vs. EXPLAINING.

What's something complicated YOU want/need to get across? Try this.

1. ASK vs. EXPLAIN Have you been taught to start communications by telling people what you’re going to tell them, telling them, and then telling them what you told them? That’s badvice because it's one-way communication that comes across as a lecture.

Do you know anyone who likes being lectured? It’s more engaging to ask “Have you ever?” questions that involve vs. inform. Now people feel you’re talking with them vs. at them.

2. SHIOW with a prop. I’m sure it was a hassle to haul that car seat into the Long Beach Convention Center. However, it was worth it because it "made us look." People's attention is where where their eyes are. If they're not looking at you, they're not listening to you. Instead of being an easy to ignore “talking head,” Cari "got our eyes" before she even said hello.

3. ACT OUT the problem you solve. Instead of using a traditional elevator pitch (boring), she put us in the scene of a real-life situation and re-enacted something we've all experienced. We remembered when that happened to us or a loved one, and voluntarily decided we wanted her product to prevent that from going wrong again.

Bill Gates said, “I believe that if you show people the problem and show them the solution, they will be moved to act.”

Agreed.

Next time you want to make the confusing - clear - act out the problem your idea, product or service solves with a prop while asking “Have you ever…?” questions.

People will think, “Been there, done that, don’t want it to happen again."

They'll relate to what you're saying, remember what you're saying, and be more likely to want what you're saying.

All because you created two-way communication that connected on an emotional and visual level - instead of purely on an intellectual level - which is the goal of every communication.

All because you used your own time and mind to create customized, original communication - instead of relying on an AI app that generated generic content anyone could do.