Lessons

Lesson Info

USP: How to Talk About Your Product

Now we're going to talk about how you talk about your work so we've been spending these last couple of segments really getting ready to approach buyers so now we've got our line sheet we've got our wholesale policies we've got either order forms or away for buyers to order and now it's time to talk about our work because even though yes that aesthetic initial impression is super important talking about your work is also really important you want to have things to say because part of selling at a store is not here's the product it's here's the product and that interaction with the sales staff kelly and gisele told us that they spend most of their days talking to customers they need to be able to talk with customers about something right ideally it's about your work so that's what we're gonna cover in this segment we're going to figure out how to talk about all of your work in a way that is interesting and compelling and that you feel really great about so part of the segment is about de...

fining your usp and u s p stands for unique selling proposition this is not the only way that you're going to talk about your work but it's a good place to start and essentially what this is is a brief phrase that lets you describe what's unique about your work now I don't actually like the unique the word unique and unique selling proposition I think it brings up a lot of like crazy. Well, my product isn't like that unique for my customer that's how they are my competitor that's, how they might say it ultimately what it is is it's just a way to describe your work that kind of sous inkley communicates this is why my products are awesome, right? So we're gonna we're gonna call that this is why my products are awesome proposition now instead of u s p I don't know what those initials are because I just made that up, but usp is talking about your products, so we're gonna work on defining all of yours. But just to give you a really concrete example, my usp is that I make jewelry that's bold enough to make a statement but easy enough to wear every day. So that's what's distinctive about my jewelry bold enough to make a statement easy enough to wear every day and that's the main selling points that I drive home. When I'm talking about my work, I talk about the bold enough to make a statement it talks about itself, I don't need to talk about that one so much right, we get that from the aesthetic, but I put that in there because it's, that contradiction bold enough to make a statement, but it's easy enough to wear every day. I've been wearing this necklace all day I barely even notice it's here right? But you guys all notice it's here, right? All right so that's usp I worked with a lot of people on u s p and one of the things that biggest confusions that I see is elevator pitch versus usb right because people try to define their u s p and then they say but if I'm out like a cocktail party we're not gonna walk up to someone be like hi, I'm meghan I make jewelry that's bold enough to make a statement and easy enoughto right? That sounds super weird on you're not going to do that you are totally not going to do that I mean we all have something like hi I'm meghan I'm a designer of the metal smith I'm an educator I have the successories line no I teach other makers and creatives how to run their businesses that's my elevator pitch that's what I'm gonna say about myself but I'm going to use that us pee when I'm talking about my work when I'm sending out that line sheet when I'm sending out that postcard two stores it's jewelry that's bold enough to make a statement and easy enough to wear every day so don't feel like you always have to use the u s p elevator pitch is when you're talking about yourself usp is when you're talking about your products and more often than not usp is about is when you're talking about your products when your products aren't here in front of you, right? So I'm standing in my trade show booth walks up, I'm not gonna be like, hi, this is jewelry that's bold enough to make a statement of an easy enough to wear every day, right? We're not like robots here, we're not if I like, say, two million times, it just gets more and more awkward. It's the kind of thing that mostly is appearing in my print material, but it's important, because if you're sending that e mail, if you're trying to be succinct that's going to tell people something it's, not delicate jewelry it's not dainty jewelry it's bold, but it's still totally, totally wearable so that's going to work? All right, so let's, start to work on your us peace, right? We're diving into that workbook from page twenty seven dive in there, so I'm not going to make you go straight to us. P I'm not gonna be like tiffany do it unless you really want to, but I'm not gonna make yu, um, we're going to start to kind of come up with how we talk about our work, so how would you describe what you d'oh to someone you just met so how you describe what you dio is going to be that elevator pitch right so how would you describe what you dio to someone you just met? I would say I'm a founder and metal smith and I currently designing jewelry collection called infused woolery alright but now how would you describe what you make so I create colorful jewelry for women to express their inner vibrancy who you've been practicing have a alright so that's really fantastic because it's customer focused it's about the experience it's not about the process and that's one of the things that I think if we were to pull a lot of our online people maybe people who haven't been hanging out with terry gentilly in iowa you're probably going to say what did you used to say about your work? Yeah it's something I've been working for a long time so I would have said I make enamel jewelry it's glass on metal cut every piece myself right blah blah blah blah blah I would have run all process and materials focus right and certainly you can get a little bit of that process in there in certain scenarios as we talked about kelly you know she likes to tell the oh stories but depending on where you're selling your work you know kelly's got this gallery it's great it's all about the maker but you know like if you're in that boutique where tiffany's products are they don't care right? She doesn't care of those products are made so it's really important that you understand you know where you're selling what stories they're telling but chances are yeah they want to be able to tell a story that's about the customer right not about the process about the customers because of you know customer cares about themselves right all right so I gave everyone homework assignment at the end of our first session which was that you were going to come the biggest fan of your products right so now we're gonna come back to that homework assignment and what I want to know is how did you feel as the user or the experience of your product what do you love about your products so doing that exercise how did you feel monica when you use your product and I know you use your product how does it make you feel um it makes me feel totally prepared actually I don't ever feel frazzled I feel like I've got it all under control we're going to get through this quickly it's gonna be a breeze and we're moving on excellent drink your coffee now we all you guys here not in studio we all got to taste jails coffee so you should be jealous good how do you feel about drinking or what do you love about your coffee? How does that how do you love the experience of drinking experience is just overwhelming, I should I won't make it longer really quick this's a very overwhelming when you guys tried and you guys loved it, I actually came in the studio and I just started crying because it felt and I got caught crying, it just felt so overwhelming because we really put a lot of tlc into it now for what we're sharing about, I feel caffeinated because I have positive fuel, I'm elevated because of the operation behind it, and then I can I just like to create because I know I'm bringing the artist world together, so there you go. So so do you feel like, oh, I love that idea of, like, positive fuel, so it's like caffeine, you don't have to feel guilty about, right, right? Because sometimes he feels guilty, like I want that caffeine, but I know like really it's, not that great for me, I probably shouldn't have it it's like caffeine without the guilt that you just you just feel positive that's awesome. All right? Um, I don't spend a lot of money on things for my house, for things that make like luxurious things, but when I have soap at my kitchen sink on my bathroom sink and in the bathtub, that is my soap that I like a lot I feel really good about that I feel like it's a little bit of luxury at each, you know, after doing dishes nice to be able to wash that something you feel that sense of luxury but you also talked about you know that your products have this fun element. So do you also get that when you're using, like, when you're washing dishes? So for me, it's always been about like, the fun is on the labeling and the names of this open like, yeah, I'm washing my hands with zombie list or you are old lace is one of our best sellers the lavender oatmeal and that was old lady, but we changed it to old lasix it's a little bit nicer and so that's where you got john in and then you use it you're like cool the keeper all right, so I want to go have you used the product as the grandma all the time I have to in my house that went upstairs went downstairs and what I really love about the product is when I go to take my granddaughter swimming when our little sister has to go to the bathroom, I mean, change her diaper, I could put it on a diaper changing table, knowing that just the matt is going to be touching all the germs the wipes are in touch in the diapers aren't touching everything's completely convenient wrap everything up everything that goes inside it's only one I think touching and all I do is popped out a white wiped the outside and I feel confident on ly one thing has touched dirty other germans so it makes you feel like so much better about you how you're taking care of those grandkids you feel good that you didn't just you're not gonna find one that's together right? And you're covering your ass on home covered in germs best sound so nice to be like in control and like this chaotic situation yeah yeah come on like that's a good world control because that is something that people want right? They want control that's awesome totally so I did my your experiment like layer layer and I love it walked around met bernie's e I felt modern and joyful and really vibrant so I felt really confident just walking around with did you feel like like you were like look at me like I got some I have some of the other people in the street and have it yet yeah, I love that yeah company so I don't wear jewelry ever on and every time I put it on I almost always want to take it off uh interesting and so not not necessarily you know all of it, but so I'm I'm wearing rings hearings and I actually had a necklace on so that was really piling on wear something all wear earrings and a necklace, a necklace and a bracelet kind of thing um and I don't notice I'm wearing them but when you know so I don't feel it and I don't feel like it needs to come off but then I looked down it catches a little glimpse that makes me kind of happy and it's pretty and and when I put earrings and a necklace on I was like, oh wow, that really kind of had polished up the outfit a little bit made it you know and felt good good so there's like kind of two things happening one is it's making you feel more polished a little more pop put together but that's also giving you like that little surprise it's like oh yeah like I took care of myself I got my ring awesome. So anna you honestly we're I'm assuming you know what? I didn't get a giant one one beyond at home, but what I didn't dio is kind of whether it was looking at pictures of my nieces and little baby cousins that I've gifted some of our stuff too or some of our like, you know, people that have raved about it I've kind of gone back to that feeling I looked at pictures and I thought about, you know, read their testimonials again so that's, how I kind of got in that element and then I just thought specifically about, like, my nieces, we're just in town, and I gave them each new t shirts because they're growing and they were just like, I can't believe I have this, they're just like shaking, they're so excited, and so I got this, like overwhelming pride in that moment, you know? It was just like, yeah, you're not enough for anymore. You're in a six and it just and now you have a new design that you like, represents your two year older personality and it just like I got this, this pride and knowing not like this shirt is not like any of the other ones that they had and something that I have also been hearing is like, your one z was the hit of the baby shower. Everyone was like, oh, cute everyone else, yeah, oh, give me pass it around, you know, when yours came up so things like that are really what I love you so and that's. Great, because for you, even though the end the user is the kid, the purchaser, the person who's got to spend that eighty nine dollars on the cardio, that person they're getting a serious emotional benefit from giving the best gift at the party, right? They air like we're cooler than you everybody knows that I feel like the best aunt in the world so that's awesome because you're really hitting on those emotional benefits for the people who are purchasing your product even though they're not the end user but it's really important that you spend the time and think about this because we want to move from that maker centric language to the customer focused language and you guys all really nailed it like you we got that here so that's awesome! So that's the first part of thinking about your usp is thinking about it from the customer perspective and hopefully I think in all of yours we started to pull out some key words, right? Like I feel put together and in control, you know, there's some good things coming out here, so we also could talk about what sets your products apart from your competitors and they know this is really challenging because we're all going to have people who do things similar. So I am not the only person in the world that's making jewelry that's bold enough to make a statement but easy enough to wear every day now that said, if I if I knew of someone who was using that language before I was, I wouldn't have adopted it so even if your products may be similar we want to use slightly different language than our customers but we also can use it to set us apart from people who are kind of very different especially aesthetically. So tiffy and I talked about how actually our products phil kind of the same need right? They have that sense of ease for the customer they toss it on and they don't have to worry it worry about it and makes their outfit feel more polished they feel more put together so we feel the same need but our aesthetics or super different right and the kind of person who's gonna buy our product is super different and so by talking about how my products are bold enough to make a statement that tells you that my stuff is very different from tiffany's even though we're both easy to wear totally cool it's gonna tell you it's very different from her so while you don't have to sit there and identify this is what's completely different from my competitors I do want you to be aware of the language that they're already using if they're already putting that language out in the world I want you to pick different language I want you to think about different words that you can own because ultimately that's what we're trying to do is we're tryingto own certain words and certain phrases in our customers minds and I mean own like then you're certainly but also literally so I own the earl for make a statement every day I won't make a statement every day dot com because I want to own that literally too, but I also want to own that for my customers, so if your competitors are already using certain language, think about how you can say it differently think about what's gonna work for you yes, you do have some responses, right? Love teo so you guys did that homework let's say you've you designer says I make it sorry you be that I felt kind of daring and cool with my pieces all layered up more than I normally would I felt like I was really making a statement like how do you like me now? Daring, daring and well, I like it will cherish me beautiful had a great one too said I make bath products that make your skin soft and makes him come back to smell you twice oh my god wait like we're back into that, whatever that other category one about all right? Awesome, I'll just throw one more out of that amusing says I also make jewellery but don't often where it layering and layering it up last night made me feel daring and thoughtful, interesting, interesting all right? And so this exercise helps us because it turns us right into our biggest fans and sometimes it's easier to talk to ourselves and our customers sometimes it's hard to get them to nail down what they're doing. I'm really lucky and that my color the second biggest fan of my products is tara gentilly, who happens to be an amazing business coach, and so when you have that person, is your customer it's really easy to find out exactly what people value about your product, right? We aren't always that lucky. Sometimes our customers can't really articulate what they love, but if they are, if they even tell you about that, you definitely want to make note of that. What are they saying? What do they love about your product? So as you're developing your usp, you can sit down makes notes of this in your work workbook to what your customers and fans saying, I think anna, you were doing that because obviously you couldn't wear your products. So you were looking to see, right? It was the hit of the baby shower. Everyone was, like that's amazing. So those are great things to know. All right, so one last thing that's gonna help derive us towards our usp is if your brand could own one word in the minds of your customers, what would that word be, and again, we want this to be a word that matters to your customers like mostly I make jewelry out of steel I don't want to own the word steal because my customers don't care don't even remember what it's made out of half the time and this world doesn't necessarily have to make it into your usp but your usp should help drive us there so my brand could own one word for my customers it's confidence all day long that's the word that's behind my brand I want you to feel more confident I want there to be strong, confident women I want everyone to go out like rocket wearing my jewelry confidence is the word that comes back for me and when I say you know well enough to make a statement easy enough to wear every day that's the peace that you're gonna toss on and it's gonna make you feel confident so one we're thinking about this one word that we want our brand tone again it doesn't have to literally go into your usp, but it should it should really you shouldn't say I shouldn't be like, uh, you know, the one word I want tone is like femininity, and then my jewelry is bold enough to make a statement and easy enough to wear every day like those don't go together at all, but if I say confidence and then I give you my usp, that makes total sense all right so now it's time to define that u s p I know hopefully we're not feeling so scary so you guys online can start to share and we're going to dive into our in studio audience and we're going to call we're going to give this like safe space permission to toss out your rough drafts right? We're not setting the final one it's okay we're gonna work through this process a little bit so we're gonna go kind of rough draft who wants to toss one out okay local indian are hearing so the word I want to own is vibrant see the thing that really talks about the colorful nous and something inside right when it and it also talks to a personality like replies to your product but it applies to their personality as well which is fantastic so right now I have infused jewelry lets women express their inner vibrancy through color that's pretty solid I think there's a way to like phrase it to punch it up a little bit okay but I think the key elements are there so what you're really doing is like you're expressing your inter vibrancy through color using color to show your personality your uh your reflecting that something you know it's those words it might not be that might be the final generation but I think the words air they're great all right monica um okay so I need a little bit of help there are some things that I want to incorporate, so the biggest thing that I want to include that nobody else in my space is doing is that I want to project that with this you can feel like you're being you khun b your inner supermom okay feel like you're like the super mom you can get you you have it all like under control you can tackle it all, so I want to say something to the effect of beer in her supermom feel put together and have control with the sweet cheeks diaper changing clutch too long say that one more time a little slower for me beer inner supermom feel put together and have control with sweet cheeks diaper changing clutch I'm liking it what I think needs to maybe be slightly more emphasised is like you've got the supermom you're put together and you're not sacrificing your own style because I think that's important customer too right? Right? And I think that you can say supermom and then you don't have to say the word control because I think that super super moms are in control, right? You're going to say that word because we know like you're the supermom you got it all under control now but they're not what did you say the word not sacrificing their what their their style or start sacrificing your style? Yeah, so you're a super mom you've got it all together but you're not sacrificing your style got it love it yeah think awesome thank you, shayla I need help I let's do it um I just have calf innate elevate create so that is definitely more of a tagline than a usp which is totally great and sometimes you can kind of blend them together but if someone's asking about your coffee you're not going to say theo so say those three words again so we can kind of break him out a little bit caf innate, elevate and create and then I made a short sentence of each okay miss catherine avery positive healthy view elevate your inspiration to be empowered and create your artistic vision that you want to live okay, so I think some of those are definitely much more about kind of the company mantra then say talking about the coffee okay, but I think what you and kind of hone in on is this idea of like, positive powering up right? So my way time powering up I just said the words that she said earlier in a different order that's really all I can I use it I'm taking it so it's positive powering up because it's guilt free caffeine yes right so if you're gonna drink it, you're gonna feel great and and this is a case where you are probably going to want to give a smidge more of like the backstory okay then you know, I'm trying to drive all like most of our makers away from that process thing but as we saw I think from our online audience your customer part of them or coffee connoisseurs so you could throw in a little bit about like and this is where it's from okay, but I think the other thing that's kind of important to kind of hit on here is that one of the things that I heard as we were sampling the coffee it was like I don't even drink right? I don't drink black coffee and it's great black like that's how I want to drink it so I think there's something in there that needs to kind of come out too it's like we're not it doesn't need anything else like it's positive power up and like like it's like you're naked coffee or something like I don't know your tio right making coffee right because that's what it is on like multiple levels so it's it's a naked coffee and that there's not crap in it right and then you don't have to put crap into it right? Just indulge in what it is right right like you can old didn't need a cup of coffee oh one like you like that e e so you've got a lot of stuff to working there and it's gonna be about kind of like sussing it out figure out like what is kind of like the first thing that you say and that's part of what we're doing here is like the usp becomes the first thing that you say and then we're going to start to work on than all the other stories that you tell because obviously there's a lot more to say then like well enough to make a safe and easy and often where every day and again I'm not going to say that when you walk up so that you might not say like positive power up let's go like now I feel like I'm on like a dad it was superhero like uh like saturday morning live action superhero show or something positive power up you're not going to say that but that definitely it starts to define what it is that the coffee does for sure thank you all right, I got stuck in a tagline land okay, so my word is racy um because it's you know it's the dirty business bath cos I'm going to be a little racy alright, I'm really going to read this yes you are okay, so our tagline like are legit tagline is we keep it clean so you don't have tio okay tagline e but then so I'm going with instead of humor personality okay um so I just feel like these are all really tig lainey I come for the personality stay for the something suds I don't know yeah yeah you're right it's certainly started feels highlights so I think in this case so this idea of kind of like racy is really interesting because you know you can't earlier you tried talk about the word luxury and I'm not convinced that luxury is the right word because I think it's going to tell the consumer the wrong thing it is for me because I don't have a higher price point than my custom right? Well and I also think like just when we say that word like you know it's a little moment for yourself but it's not the moment of like it's not the spa like tinkling music it's like the little like quirky, funky like steal away but in that kind of like wants to be a little scandalous right? Like it's like the soap version of a nooner I think you have todo wait you have to go that far but that's a totally great line tio go that far and maybe you come back and maybe you don't I mean you want to be racy, right? Clean soap, dirty business, right? But that's, what you're doing, I don't want to go right, so you might not describe it in that way exactly but that's kind of what you're doing you're doing it's like this little moment of pleasure think pleasure is a better word for you that luxury right pleasure that little moment of pleasure in your day and that's what the soap gives you that little moment of pleasure so we'll keep tweaking that a little bit over there and think about but that's the version of a nooner look actually how we describe that a little better okay all right um what we did years right we talked about okay? We're got feeling pretty good pretty good all right okay I think it's good. I never like anything I come up with this I could never do this and I could never do a tagline for me for whatever reason but, um I came up with tiffany angeleri helps you feel perfectly polished and put together without weighing you down oh, I like that without weighing you down polish put together with that way and you don't you think it's good. Yeah, okay, totally okay think about it. Your customer daniel that's what she wants right? Shawn's feel polished put together but she is busy and she is on the move so she was nothing to weigh her down right? Nothing is gonna stop her energy generation yeah it's perfect. Okay, good all right, yeah, I'm sorry I'm laughing you know e I also need some health alright as I've the name the word that I keep coming back to his personality but I don't feel like that encapsulate everything because I'm not so much stuck in like this is how we make it this is what it's made of but I feel like that does kind of speak teo like our bigger right decision so it's like um we're creating these unique gifts we want you to feel generous and want you to feel unique and celebrate the new unique little people in your life right? But then also your purchases helping like us serve the community right? So I feel like I'm I think there's too much I'm trying to pack right? And so I think that then becomes like a secondary story that you're telling okay, but I think ultimately like what you're doing on so many levels is like you're creating this gift that you feel really good about giving right so if you feel good about giving it because it's going tio like it's gonna make you the coolest one at the party it's gonna make your nieces and nephews feel awesome but then you could also feel good about giving it for all of these other reasons, right? So yeah, I say in part of thy say like celebrating personality and inspiring generosity, okay? Um yeah, I I think that I couldn't work, but I think there's something that kind of like talks about your product a little bit more uh and I think there's a I really think that because what we've been talking about is that it's so much about like it's not the mom buying it it's someone else buying it for the gift like it has you have to emphasize but that's what is happening with the spring like you were buying a gift that that you do I I was on a roll and I got you and ana I got stuck e o so so I think there's something more and like the how the gift giver is feeling so like when you gave it to your nieces and nephews like what? So it was like that I feel so cool like they were so excited right? So I don't know we're gonna we're gonna work on yours a little bit yes yeah yes tossing out some words that's in jail agree I got stuck here so let's give the best gift that celebrates the little one in your life so like that idea of like you're giving the best gifts and it's also like a reflection of that kid or something in there? Yeah baby oh yeah like my thing is like the reason I started the baby writing I was like I was becoming this auntie and I was like, well these air clearly to me like the most awesome babies ever so I don't want to give them start that all the other babies can have no right to give of reflection similar to what she said you know I don't know like well I something like really like yeah but I also feel like this is a case where like right you're tryingto like you're almost trying to do like the humble brag and maybe you should just go for the full on brag you're gonna win you're gonna win gift giving like you were giving you you win and so like like these are gifts from the best aunt ever I mean that's what they are like the gifts from the coolest aunt and so I think that's what you can kind of emphasize and then right and then that leads you into all the rest of the stories because not only the best gifts because they're going to feel great about it it's gonna be the hit of baby shower but then also we make them in this amazing way so that leads you into the rest of the conversation okay okay we'll tweak it some more time all right when we get online some of them are getting stuck in tagline land it's something that they already really struggling right so the way that I think about it is taglines are like shorter they're like they're like to the point a couple of words so like what's look at nike nike is like the ultimate highlight just do it and I love that tagline because it's actionable and it's customer focused right? Just do it you know what you're supposed to do I already have like black blue matter they said it's hand crafted I she says macabre but I can't believe she means my car broke wait get confused I think it is macabre but handcrafted macabre housewares for life with character a marriage with him how saying hurt us peers the every drape every day dress it feels like sweats but it looks like style that is awesome that one but I think that you can see I got confusing because I was saying I thought she was saying it feels like sweat my thinking theo, wait every woman got that immediately they were like, oh, I feel like that's what I got yeah, you're not the demographic for that thing is going on text girl is saying guilty pleasures we keep them clean right now he's guilty but I like that alright now. Alicia niles uh what she's suggesting for jewelry is jewelry that feels like wearing a happy mood interest day alright, yeah, I think that we're starting to get somewhere and and this is something that you can refine overtime and so with that one of, like feels like you're wearing a happy mood, so if you were heading into tagline land, you might literally say put on a happy mood, right? But then we're going to use the jewelry that feels like you, you're wearing a happy mood because we do need, sir, we want to kind of mention the product, right? So that's, where we go from, like, tagline to u s p, is somewhere in the u s p u have to say what the product is, right? We're going to say, it's jewelry were going to say, it's, coffee, we're gonna, you know, I forget how exactly you phrase yours, but you got it right because you said like, this is what we're doing in here. This is our product, so that's, part of how you make that transition from tagline too usp, is that it is about the product, so it's not describing the product so literally, but it is essentially a version of a product description. Lotus root is offering up your favorite afternoon delight for the soap afternoon coming, you're gonna have so many idea here.