Nailing Your Sales Proposition ...

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It doesn’t matter whether you sell pizza, cars or solid state memory chips, every company grapples with the question: why should the customer buy me over competitors?

Few companies try to compete on price, and even those that do are careful in how they play the low-price card.

The next time you’re at Costco or Walmart, check out the signage in front of the store. Aside from the word “wholesale,” the storefronts are clean.

 

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Even Amazon touts “deals” over “low prices.”

That’s why this mini store in Singapore caught my attention.

 

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If you missed the “ULTRA VALUE” in large capital letters, the words “cheapest store” make sure you understand the store’s sales proposition.

The last time I saw a sales proposition communicated with such clarity (and gumption) was a billboard in Las Vegas:

 

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Like the mini mart in Singapore, the billboard goes with the two-word, initial caps headline in red. Note the masterful job in establishing empathy with the potential buyer. By resisting the exclamation point, it sends the message to the potential buyer: We’re all in this together.

Turning to the body copy, the sales proposition leaves nothing to interpretation, “We fix it Fast.”

There’s beauty in simplicity. Just a confident declarative sentence designed to bring comfort to the potential buyer. And note the uppercase of the “F” in “Fast.” It’s a subtle way to accentuate the point that these folks don’t dawdle.

Last, a good old-fashioned phone number signs off the billboard. By staying away from an 800 number, they let the prospect know they’re a local outfit. Heck, their son probably plays little league baseball with someone you know.

Notice anything missing?

Right, there’s no company name.

Now you might be thinking that this is a byproduct of running out of room on the billboard. Perhaps.

But I suspect this was a conscious decision to keep the purity of the message. The last thing you want is a tug o’ war in the prospect’s mind between the name of the company and the service. Few companies aside from Apple can properly brand both the company name and their product names.

Besides, do you really want to know who’s behind this magic wand?

 


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