We want a USP that benefits our customers, is easy to communicate, and reduces the focus on price. Since, with PCBs, a simple USP is too hard to find and defend – we need a combined USP.

Example: These hotels have a beautiful view; these hotels have five-star restaurants, these have a gym. This is the only hotel that has all three, and it’s also the most expensive. Is it worth it? That depends on the customer. If the customer will not use the gym, maybe this hotel provides better value for the price. This hotel then has a combined USP; a combination of benefits and price. For the sportsperson who eats his own granola in his room, it would be crazy to pay extra for access to a good restaurant. For the gym customer who very much also wants the view and the food, this hotel has a combined USP.

So, a combined USP is built from features that benefit a specific customer.

These features can be more or less unique – when you compare them one by one to other suppliers. But if we are practically alone in being able to combine them in ways that customers appreciate, we have a combined USP.

I’m sure you can see how the combined USP is more of a challenge to a salesperson. If you have 2-3 USPs, it’s still possible to just tell the customers about them. But in our more complex world of PCBs, our list of USPs has 100-something features. If we talk about them all, we bore our customers to death.

Instead, you must first figure out what customers value to know what USPs to present – HEED the NEED! The SPIN-course gives good advice on how to do this.

So, creating a combined USP is not easy – but amazingly effective when you do it right. When you find a combined USP for a demanding customer, they get a unique offering tailored for their needs, price becomes less important, and it is hard for competitors to follow. All very good things.

Of course, it’s an advantage if your USPs are dramatically better than your competition. But there is also a challenge with that – the more dramatic the difference, the more skeptical the customer will be. Talk is cheap, so customers need a good reason to believe that a terrific USP is as good as it sounds.

For you as a salesperson, it means that when you claim a USP, you must also make it believable. If you mention something to illustrate your USP – a fact, or a detail – it shows that you know what you are talking about, and it helps the customer believe and remember your statement. There will be examples of this in the next lesson.