A good unique selling point (USP) should form the basis of all the brand messaging and communication that comes from a company. If you’re conducting telemarketing for your own business, keeping the USP front of mind is essential.
A clearly defined USP will help to set a company apart from your competition and should become the pivotal point that all conversations are based around. For many companies, their USP may be used in their strapline or other written content, but not always included in their everyday conversations.
When it comes to telemarketing, the aim is to build a connection with the prospect and develop trust with them.
To help you utilise the USP more effectively to do this, we’ve outlined three key stages where it should be front of mind.
Campaign planning
When you’re building a campaign, you should be putting considerable thought into your targeting, your pitch and your desired outcomes.
You should also be considering how you add value to the customer. It may be you have more than one USP to choose from.
Consider what will matter most to the prospect and how you will communicate that value to them. Although you’ll almost certainly list other benefits during the course of your conversations, you must be clear about which benefits are unique to you.
Having clarified the USP for the campaign, it’s time to put some research in. It’s all very well telling customers you offer the most competitive rates in the south, but if you can’t back that up with statistical evidence they’ll just see it as a marketing gimmick.
If the USP you offer is based around your team’s expertise or experience, you must be prepared to demonstrate this to the prospect. Customer reviews, relevant content (ebooks, filmed talks) or a question and answer session can help to reassure them.
Initial contact
When you first reach out to a new prospect, there can be a lot of barriers to get through. You have to identify the right decision maker, engage them in conversation and work in your pitch without being too pushy.
When a prospect comes away from a conversation with you, they should be clear on two things: who you are and why they should talk to you.
Even if you know you haven’t reached the decision maker yet, making these points clearly will allow your message to get passed up the chain effectively.
The first part of this is about your ability to build a connection and sell yourself.
The second part revolves around the USP. It may seem simple to push a USP that you’ve learnt by heart, but a good telemarketer will develop the ability to spin a USP to suit the needs of the customer.
Ideally, the USP you’re pushing should line up directly with the prospect’s key pain point. If you’ve got your targeting right, this should be the case most of the time. But even then, it may be that the prospect doesn’t view the problem in the same way you do.
Understanding what the prospect believes their issue is will be essential in convincing them your offering (with your USP) is the right solution.
Follow up
When following up with a customer, whether it’s pre-sale, post-sale or in the event of a lost sale, it can be easy to think that you no longer need to sell in your company.
After all, they’ve already heard the information.
But no matter what the reason for following up is, it’s crucial that you reiterate your USP and try and get some feedback on it.
At the pre-sale stage, particularly when talking to more than one decision maker, your follow-up should centre around restating your USP and offering materials and content to back it up.
Again, this is much easier for your contact to share and pass on, and also help to keep you front of mind.
Post-sale, you should focus on customer value and feedback. If your offer is an ongoing service or subscription, make sure they are aware how they can get the most value possible and access what they need.
It’s also great to find out what features they have found themselves using, and what their thoughts are on them.
By offering more support and getting them to think about why they like your offering, you’re more likely to turn a customer into a brand ambassador who recommends new business.
Finally, if you’re following up on a lost opportunity, try and find out what their final decision was and why. Remind them what you offer and try and gather insight into what it was they felt was a larger priority.
These follow-ups can shape your conversations and even your offering in the future. They also keep you in the customer’s mind so that, if they do ever feel things aren’t working out with their initial choice, they may come back to you.
If you’re looking for support in setting up effective telemarketing campaigns, we can help. Get in touch and see how we can help you generate high quality leads and build your brand.
