How to Differentiate Your Unique Value Proposition

People decide by comparing. Your Unique Value Proposition (UVP) is your solution’s actual value because it is something that your competitors cannot do.

The most important aspect of differentiation is when you have customized your solution to meet your client’s specific needs. Even though you probably did not change your product or service, you do declare exactly how the Value Proposition will best help your buyer.

The reason differentiation is so important is that if you’re not differentiating your solution, you are selling as much for your competitors as you are for yourself.

Boldly Claim

The first step in differentiation is to boldly and verbally recognize your company’s difference and create contrast between yourself and the other options—the contrast is what makes the difference, and it’s what people notice. Don’t make them work for it; make the difference easy for your prospect to identify.

This is when you should name and title your proposition.

Cure the Pain

You should boldly claim your uniqueness by showing the customer the value that is specific to him or her. In other words, focus on your buyer’s pain.

In the Discovery phase, we asked questions to probe where the buyer’s pain was by asking the negative results of not solving his or her problem or achieving his or her goal. In this section, we build on the established path to a solution by finding out how we are the best solution. Then, we show them why we are the best by differentiating ourselves from all other options.

These other options include your competitors, doing nothing, as well as your prospect trying to solve their own problem. At this point, you may remind them how your solution fixes their problem best.

Transfer Confidence

You are the person to whom the buyer has confided their problems, and maybe even the one who helped them discover what the problems were in the first place. When confronted with the question, “Could someone else’s option be better?” you are qualified to give the answer.

Your answer might go something like this:

“It could be, but I don’t know. What I know, because you have told me what you need, is that we are the best option.”

Validation can also help in transferring confidence, because validation can be a differentiating factor. When the research confirms that you are the only tested option, it reconfirms what you—their brain trust—are saying is true.

Our ability to articulate a thorough understanding of the buyer’s issue and exactly how our solution resolves their issue is how we differentiate ourselves.

The primary reason buyers choose one seller over another is rarely because of a different product, overall solution, or a lower price. It’s because of the individual seller’s ability to demonstrate a better understanding of how their product meets the buyer’s needs.