Almost every business in the same industry ‘uses the same USPs’

The 11 AIB Start-up Academy finalists were last week introduced to sales and negotiation by executive coach and speaker Sean Weafer.

During week four of the AIB Start-up Academy’s intensive eight-week programme run by Irish Times Training, the companies learned how to create compelling business messages, how to engage with clients and how to give great presentations.

Weafer lectured on the importance of creating a business message that appeals to customers’ emotions. He said most businesses use unique selling points (USPs), a marketing concept used to differentiate a product from its competitors. Common USPs include: “We’re a one-stop shop”, and, “We’ll give you access to our partners”.

The problem, Weafer says, is that almost every business in the same industry uses the same USPs, so they are not very unique.

Another problem is they are designed to be highly logical and to make sense, “which is not nearly as powerful as an emotional business message”.

Weafer advises businesses to turn USPs into points of compelling relevance (PCRs), messages that make a product or company’s benefit to the client instantly obvious.

“If you create a PCR, you create a message that’s immediately meaningful, of value to the client and impacts on the emotions that drive their decisions,” he said.

While a USP would read, “We’ll give you access to our partners”, a PCR would read, “We give you the reassurance of being able to make faster, more competent decisions in business because we give you access to our partners”. Weafer says this message is emotional and relevant, highlighting the service’s value to the client.

The start-ups looked at their USPs during this week’s module and broke them down to create compelling messages.

Weafer also lectured the start-ups on advanced meeting management skills, highlighting ways to engage with clients using advanced question sets and suggestions to create an atmosphere of collaboration.

“It brings the client into the process of creating corporate solutions. People aren’t looking for experts anymore, they’re looking for advisors,” Weafer said.

He explained how to manage objections from clients about things like pricing and competitors. Pushback from clients, he says, is actually a good thing because it shows they are interested in your product.

Weafer also showed the start-ups how to make an engaging presentation, using stories and humour to get their audience involved. The presentation becomes a conversation with the client rather than a monologue.

He explained “how to make it a really engaging presentation for the client to take action at the end of it”, whether it is in front of an audience of one or 500.

The AIB Start-up Academy continues next week with Module 5: Marketing and mastering “the funnel”, a way to reach customers in order to increase sales.