I attended a Sales Focus seminar a few years back in which the speaker asked this key question. Why, based on all the competitive alternatives available to me, would I want to buy from you? What a great question.

Most of the participants in the room couldnt come up with anything beyond Weve only got experienced professionals on staff.; We use proven methodologies.; Weve got a reputation in the marketplace for delivering value-added services. or Were totally committed to our clients success.

To which the speaker replied, Excuse me, but whos not saying those things?

You must be able to clearly define what differentiates you from your competitors in the marketplace. If youre not clear, how can you expect your clients and prospects to be clear? In essence, you might as well be saying, Please buy from me what you might otherwise buy from someone else. Give me your money.

Your long winded description of who you are, what you do for a living and why youre so great will rarely attract your ideal client. If fact, youre probably more likely to drive them away.

We all know a lot of service providers who are out there trying to use this approach. Most of them are standing around commiserating with each other that its tough out there, and people just arent buying right now. What they dont understand is that without clearly articulating their unique value theyre not giving prospective clients, who actually want and need their service, a chance to find them.

If you havent spent the time to get straight on this concept for your business, then stop what youre doing and do this now. Trust me when I say that youre better off to skip the next networking meeting or postpone that next sales meeting to work on this step rather than continue on without it.

When done correctly, clear definition of your unique value becomes one of the most potent weapons in your marketing and sales arsenal.

How do you do this? Heres an idea. Start by truly defining who your ideal client is. Not some vague description of various types of clients youve worked with in the past. Develop a solid profile of what your favorite, best, most ideal client looks like. Next, clarify what success in working with you would look like from the clients perspective.

Now answer this question, Why do you work? What is it that you are uniquely doing and why does that make it a better deal for the client? What do you do better, different, faster, more economically, with higher quality, with added benefits, with lower risk, or with a different spin? Be as specific as you can. Dont generalize or be vague.

If you really want to get tremendous value from this exercise then sit down with a handful of your ideal clients and share your results with them to get their input. Oh by the way just by doing this, you will be differentiating yourself from your competition because youre including your clients.

Once youve got this clear definition of your unique value, you can use it throughout all of your marketing and sales efforts. To be effective, it must be authentic and real. Dont go overboard where you might over promise and under deliver. That could kill your business faster than anything else.

The more youre able to communicate your unique value, the more youll be working with your ideal clients and providing them your services.