business name book - closerhub€¦ · 11 information technology solutions developing your unique...

11

Information Technology Solutions

Developing your Unique Selling Proposition (USP)

Your Unique Selling Proposition (USP) is a way of explaining your position against your competition.

A good USP should summarize and even foreshadow one of the chief benefits your company/service gives your prospects/clients. USP can be built around anything: • Price • Benefit • Color • Size • Scent • Celebrity (or other) Endorsement • Location • Hours • Expertise • Coverage Area • Social Class • Technology • Convenience • Etc. As you are learning about USP and working on creating yours, gain awareness of the USPs all around you.

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Creating a Business Name and Web Address

That Attracts More Signings

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Look at other businesses (in and out of your industry) and ask these questions: • Does it have a USP? • If not, can I think of a USP for it? • If so, is there any way I can improve their USP? • Is there any idea here I can “steal” for my use? Now, when it comes to “stealing” ideas (I prefer the term “swipe”), look for ideas outside of your area of business that you can convert and use for your business. It won’t help to “swipe” ideas from your competition. Your prospects/clients will notice and won’t trust you. This wouldn’t help distinguish you from your competition either. Here are some examples of USPs: • Dominos Pizza gained their market share when they

developed their USP, “Hot pizza, delivered in 30 minutes or less, guaranteed”.

• Several years back Sun Tea Jars become popular. Now, these

are just 1-gallon glass jars. But, when someone had the idea of putting a sticker on one that said “Sun Tea Jar”, they were able to charge 4 –5 times more for their 1-gallon glass jar.

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• Keurig has reinvented how we drink coffee. We can now brew a single cup of hot coffee in a minute on demand. No more wasting two-thirds of a pot of coffee.

Now, I’m not a coffee drinker, but my wife is. This product is absolute genius to me. They have made this “new” way of brewing coffee on demand so popular, that they easily convinced the marketplace to spend $100 - $300 for a machine to brew coffee when most likely they already have a machine in their kitchen that will brew coffee. If they don’t, they could get one for $25 - $50. AND...get consumers to repeatedly buy coffee in their proprietary k-cups that only work in their machines at a price of $.50 - $1.50 per cup of coffee when you can buy coffee for a traditional coffee maker at a price of $.03 per cup. (I found a can of Folgers coffee with 240 cups of coffee for $7.94 at Walmart). You could waste several pots of coffee every day before you would breakeven on this proposition, but it doesn’t matter. Keurig’s USP has created unbelievable market share for them.

Your USP should answer the question burning in your prospect’s/client’s mind:

“Why should I choose you for my signings versus any other option out there?”

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Use this question to dig deep into what your prospects really want/need. This is where your prior research from your survey gives you a tremendous advantage over your competition. Most notaries assume what their clients want. They base their assumptions on: • How they were trained • How they were introduced to the business • How their main client prefers things • How other notaries do it So they blindly enter the marketplace thinking they are offering their clients/prospects what they want. But they don’t really know. You could make the best hamburger in the world. I’m talking like, world-renowned, award-winning, everybody raves about your AWESOME hamburger. But if you move into a town where only vegetarians live and open a hamburger stand, you’re not going to sell any delicious, gourmet hamburgers. You couldn’t give them away. Your not giving your prospects/clients what they want. So, let’s apply this to your notary business:

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Your assumptions could cost you a fortune. Let’s say you decide you are going to be the cheapest notary in town. You assume your prospect’s/client’s number one concern is pricing. So you make sure you have the lowest prices. This strategy will get you signings. However, the reality may be that your prospect’s/client’s number one concern is being notified the very second a signing is complete. You see, they may have positioned themselves with their clients as a high service level provider. They personally call their Loan Officers or Mortgage Bankers as soon as the signing is complete to assure them that their client has been taken care of. If you know this about your prospect/client, you can position yourself to provide the most important thing they are looking for in a mobile notary - prompt communication following a signing. AND...you may be able to charge a much higher fee for the same signing service you were willing to provide as the “cheapest option available”. As a quick side note, building your USP around price or trying to get signings by being the cheapest is not a good idea in our industry. Your prices will always be undercut by another notary who needs more signings.

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You would actually be training your prospects/clients to look for the lowest price available. You will never have a loyal customer base using this strategy. Instead, find out what your prospects/clients place high value on and give them that thing better than any of your competition. This will create loyalty.

Combine your USP with an irresistible offer

An “irresistible offer” is something that would cause a prospect to do something they wouldn’t normally do. I remember a time when I was in college that I drove 3 hours during the night through a driving rainstorm that included multiple tornados. Looking back on it, this was crazy to attempt. I should not have been driving in these conditions. I truly put my life and the lives of the other crazies on the road at risk. Why would I do this? You see, I had an irresistible offer that motivated me.. My girlfriend at the time (now wife of over 20 years) and I were heading to visit her family for the weekend.

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I had the promise of some extra kissy-face time and a chance to spend more time with her than I would get back on campus. The irresistible offer made me choose to do something that I normally would not do. A good business example of this is the “Columbia House CD Club” back in the 90s. They enticed you to commit to buying 6 CDs at “regular club price” (which was higher than you could buy them at the store) over the next 3 years by giving you 8 CDs for a penny now. The lure of the instant gratification of 8 CDs now seduced us all to join. Most of us didn’t even own 8 CDs before we joined the club. We had an instant CD collection, for only a penny. The irresistible offer caused us to make a commitment for future purchases that we would not have committed to otherwise. So how can you use this principle in your notary business? Even if you create a USP that effectively meets your prospect’s needs, they may be hesitant to hire you. They may be content with their current mobile notaries. Or they may be unsure of using mobile notaries because they’ve always only used their employees to do their signings.

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So, if you sweeten your killer USP with an irresistible offer, it may be what pushes them over the edge to give you a try. Here are some ideas you could use. Don’t just settle for these ideas, let these ideas inspire you to brainstorm even better ideas. • Offer their first signing for half-price or even FREE • Offer to come in and observe them do a signing or two so you

can learn the nuances they prefer in their signings • Offer to pick up and hand-deliver the documents for their first

signing • Offer a discount for a guaranteed volume of signings each

month • Give them their 2nd closing FREE (this gets you at least 2

chances to WOW them)

Be in the Right Place at the Right Time with the Right USP

Your USP may not be the same all the time. You may tweak it, customize it based on a specific client or current market conditions. Shortly after the sub-prime mortgage meltdown, we started doing more and more REO signings (sales of bank-owned properties). After a brief learning curve (just understanding the process and

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learning the specific needs of our clients for these transactions), we grew to LOVE these transactions. • Many of our clients would overnight the documents to the

closing location the day before the closing. So, we never had to worry about late or last-minute docs.

• Many of these transactions were cash deals. So, the packages

were small and we didn’t have to wait for funding approval. • These signings were only with the buyer, so there were fewer

docs than a traditional purchase. • Most of these transactions had investors as buyers, so they

were familiar with the process and just wanted to hurry up and sign and get done with the signing.

These signings took less time, less effort, and had less stress than most signings and we were getting paid the same to do these as other signings So, we started thinking, “how can we get more of these signings?”. We did some research to find out who the title companies were that handled these REO signings in our area and we created a marketing campaign targeting them.

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Then we walked through the process of creating a USP specifically for these prospects. We knew from working with our current REO clients that their biggest concerns were: • Being on time • Knowing the documents (there were a few special docs in

REO packages) • Dressing professionally (because these signings were usually

in Real Estate Agent offices) • Not leaving the signing until we had approval from the title

company So we created marketing campaigns directly to these REO prospects. Our USP showcased us as “REO Specialists” and we specifically focused our benefits to them around the concerns listed above. This was one of the most successful marketing campaigns we have ever done. We still have many loyal clients that started using us to do their signings because of this campaign. We were in the Right Place (in front of REO title companies) at the Right Time (the market was saturated with foreclosures) with

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the Right USP (REO Specialists). How can you use this principle in your notary business today? • Be the Healthcare Specialist (hospital notarizations) • Be the Local TRID Expert (highlight your knowledge of the

new Closing Disclosure) • Be the Purchase Specialist (highlight your people skills and

ability to manage the closing table with buyers, sellers, agents, Los, etc.)

• The possibilities are endless Be looking for the needs (opportunities) in your area with your prospects.

Creating a Values-Based USP

I think we can all agree McDonald’s does not have the best tasting hamburger you’ve ever eaten. In fact, often times we regret having eaten one after we finish it. So, how is it possible that they are the number one hamburger purveyor in the entire world with “billions and billions” served?

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It is because founder Ray Kroc was committed to his core value of “consistency”. He believed a vital key to having a successful restaurant chain was the ability to get the “exact same thing” from the restaurant wherever you are. So, McDonald’s created “Hamburger U” to train franchise owners and management to operate their individual locations the same way. Today, you can enjoy a Big Mac in Bangor, Maine or Bangladesh and it will taste the same. All around the world, you can rely on getting to taste the comfort of home by visiting the nearest McDonald’s. Many restaurants have created bigger or better or juicier or healthier hamburgers, but none of them have been able to conquer McDonald’s market share because of their commitment to this values-based USP. When we created our main USP for our signing company, we created a values-based USP: “Real. Local. Closers., not just a database of notaries” It is the core of our signing company. We have consistently resisted the temptation to become a nationwide signing service because of our commitment to this core value.

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One of the biggest pains and frustrations our prospects/clients have is an incompetent notary causing problems at the closing table that cause their clients to take their business to their competitors. We personally experienced this pain when we ran a local office of a national title company years ago. So, we refuse to hire just any notary from a database or website. We use only hand-picked, Real. Local. Closers. Our clients know this and that is why they trust us with their clients that they’ve worked hard to get and keep. What values can you build your USP around?

Building a USP around what customers don’t like

A side benefit to our values-based USP for our signing company described above, is that it is also built around what our clients don’t like. We found there was a perception among title companies in our area that all signing companies are the same. They thought all signing companies would just go to a website to find a notary in the area they needed and hire them to do the signing without pre-qualifying them or knowing anything about them.

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So we made sure they knew that’s not how we do things around here. In fact, “Real.Local.Closers.” became our tagline. It is under “The Closers, Inc,” in all of our marketing. Another example of this is prevalent in the plumbing industry. One of the biggest complaints about plumbers is they are never on time. You have to wait around all day for them. None of us have time for that. There is a local plumber in Indianapolis whose USP, slogan, and commercial jingle is: “We’re always on time or you don’t pay a dime” This hits home with their customer base. Time is money and they don’t want to wait around all day.

Creating a mission-based USP

Another successful method of creating your USP is to build it around your mission. What’s your burning desire? How do you want to make a significant impact in the world? TOMS Shoes is a perfect example of this. Owner and founder, Blake Mycoskie, set out to change the world by giving a pair of shoes to someone in need for every pair of shoes he sold.

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I’m not a fashion critic by any means, but if you had tried to sell TOMS shoes in the marketplace 5 years before they came into being without their mission as the driving force behind the company, you would have failed miserably. The shoes were ugly, somewhat flimsy, and in no way fashionable. But, because of their mission and the timing of our nation’s focus on social justice throughout the world. TOMS Shoes became fashionable. They’ve been copied by many different brands. Yet, TOMS Shoes maintains an incredible amount of market share because they have remained true to their mission-based USP. They have created customers for life, because their customers feel like true partners in solving global poverty and health issues. Today, TOMS mission expands beyond their “buy a pair, give a pair” foundation. They are helping millions around the world AND profiting BILLIONS of dollars doing it. What causes are you passionate about that you could build your USP around? These causes could create a deeper bond with your prospects/clients than you could create otherwise.

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Crafting your USP around a unique angle

One of the best ways to STAND OUT from other notaries is to find and focus on a unique angle. Here are some possible unique angles for you to explore: • Be YOU - Non one else can be you better than you. What is it

about you that will resonate with your prospects/clients? Focus on those things in your USP.

• Provide Better Customer Service - We are in a service

industry. If you don’t service your customers, someone else will.

• Do Something No One Else is Willing to Do - How can you go

the extra mile to set yourself apart? • Use a Different Format or Channel - This could be how you

perform your service or how you reach out to your prospects/clients. Sometimes the best way to separate yourself is to see where your competition is and go somewhere else. For example, if other notaries are marketing on Facebook well, make your marketing direct mail.

• Choose a Different or More Specific Audience - We do a lot of

marketing directly with Loan Officers. We build the relationships with them and then have them direct their title

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companies to use us for their signings. • Provide a Solution No One Else Has - This takes some

serious time and effort. If you can create a new solution to your prospect’s/client’s needs, you will dominate your market.

• Market Better than the Competition - We feel this is one of

your best opportunities to blow away your competition. Especially in our industry, notaries do not do a good job marketing. That’s why you’re reading this book and everything else we create for you at CloserHUB.

Now it’s time for you to TAKE ACTION. Use the USP Worksheet on the next page to create your USP. Once completed, email your USP to us at [email protected] with the subject line “My USP”. We would love to give you some feedback on it.

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My USP Worksheet - Page 1

Grab a stack of 3 x 5 index cards or a pad of post-it notes. Write one fact, benefit, promise, idea on each card until you’ve exhausted everything you know about your business and your competitors. Prioritize them in order of importance to your prospects/clients. Reminders for your possible USP: • Summarize a chief benefit you provide your prospects/clients • Answer the burning question in your prospect’s/client’s mind • Combine your USP with an irresistible offer • Be in the Right Place at the Right Time with the Right USP • Consider ideas for a values-based USP • Build your USP around what your prospects/clients don’t like • Mission-based USPs can create deeper client loyalty • What unique angle can be the foundation for your USP?

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My USP Worksheet - Page 2

Write out three possible USPs below and email them to us at [email protected]. We would love to send you FEEDBACK to help you solidify your USP so you can use it to get more signings.

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