marketing-in-africa.com

Your Unique Selling Proposition (USP) must be clear in all of your activities for marketing in Africa. It is what a customer recognizes and thinks of instantly when they see or hear your name and it is your distinctive selling advantage that sets you above and apart from your competition.

Your USP is all-important. If you don’t have one, or you don’t articulate the one you do have, then you’re lucky to get any business at all.

Biggest Mistake: Many businesses make a basic mistake when they attempt any sort of marketing in Africa. When they are trying to attract new customers, they don’t state their distinctive advantage and so they indirectly say, “Give me your business instead of my competitors, for no reason at all.” Or, “Give me your charity because I have nothing special to offer you.” It’s ridiculous! Why would businesses do that? If you cannot give them a better reason, they are probably not going to transfer their business over to you.

Special Note: Do not confuse your USP with a slogan such as “Best Price, Best Service”. These are usually empty statements that mean little. Write out your USP in one or two paragraphs if you can and refine it until it’s irresistible.

Think about these questions:

1. Every business has a distinctive advantage. What is yours?
2. Do you communicate it clearly in every sales call that is made, every ad that is placed?
3. What advantage do you advertise to the market so that they would be foolish to go to anyone else? (If you don’t have a distinctive advantage, you must create one or you risk becoming a commodity just like most other businesses.)
4. Can all of your staff articulate your USP? (If you aren’t sure, have a friend or associate walk through your business and ask each of your employees what the distinctive advantage of the business is. If you get varied answers, or no answers at all, you know that you have some work to do.)
5. What can you do to focus in a niche and communicate to your prospective clients that you are the only logical choice to come to?
6. If you want to take it to a whole new level, what can you do to dis-empower your competition and take their market share before they know what hit them?

If you don’t have a USP, or you don’t communicate the one you have, then you are lucky to get the business you have. If there are 100 buyers and there are 19 other stores like yours, then you will just get 5 of those 100 or 5%.

You need to spend time developing your USP, then make sure it is communicated through everything from your ads, your telephone conversations, and every contact you have with a customer or prospect.

Here is my USP that I use whenever I meet with a prospective client or whenever I speak at events. You’ll notice that it is longer than one paragraph, but notice how it does the following:

1.    It makes me very distinctive;
2.    It dis-empowers the competition;
3.    It re-sets the buying criteria;
4.    It takes away the client’s risk;
5.    It makes me the only logical choice to come to.

 

“You know how many businesses have a hard time making the payroll and they struggle with coming up with a workable and effective marketing strategy? Then they end up hiring a consultant who charges too much, takes up a lot of their time, writes a report, gives a few ideas, then walks away leaving them to pay for it, whether it works or not?

“We at Alpha International Consultancy are unlike other consultants who attempt any type of marketing in Africa. What we do is come into your business, perform a marketing audit for a very minimal fee, and if we like what we see, we begin to solve the marketing problems that keep you awake at night. We work with you to set up an entire marketing program with implementation strategies and corresponding tactics, and we only ask you to pay after you hear the cash register ringing and see your revenues grow. For most businesses, if you don’t make money, you won’t pay us a shilling. We take the burden of risk on ourselves.

“Here’s the only way I will let you be a client of mine – as long as you agree to apply the strategies and tactics to the level that we agree upon, I am only too happy to guarantee you an outcome of tangible results. In short, if I can’t produce a superior result or advantage that we both agree on, I don’t believe it’s fair for me to keep your money.

“If you want to out-sell and out-wit your competition before they know what hit them, and set the buying criteria in your favor so you become the market’s most logical choice, leave me your card and I’ll have one of my assistants contact you to begin a Marketing Audit”

Isn’t that great! Now see what you can use, or adapt, or adopt to suit your own business.

Begin with this template:

 

1.    You know how many business do this (state the biggest problem in your industry).

2.    We at (your company name) are unlike those businesses.

3.    What we do is (fill in your distinctive advantage).

When you have come up with your new USP, do the following:

1.    Start to test it in every selling situation possible.

2.    Note the reactions of your clients.

3.    Write down any positive or negative reactions to your USP.

4.    Keep track of sales that result from this new USP.

5.    Test various alternatives of the new USP until you have one that truly make your company grow exponentially.

This is a quintessential element for your business growth so it is vital you get it right or your attempts at marketing in Africa will be limited at best.

To your success,

Patrick Bell, MBA, MA
www.Marketing-in-Africa.com

Tags: Africa, Biggest Mistake, Marketing, Unique Selling Proposition