Your Message and Your Unique Value Proposition
Welcome back to the blog series, “Change Your Message,” and getting to work with Tip 3, “Carry Your Message Throughout Your Business.” (If you missed our last post or simply need a refresher click here!), now on to today’s post! Have you downloaded Olga Mizrahi’s UVP Worksheet? You’ll need it for this exercise!
Carry Your Message Throughout Your Business
It’s not enough to know what makes you unique, everyone who works for your company must eat, sleep, and breathe this difference, too. You need to make sure that your specific story is told by all of the various pieces of your business—most importantly, those people that make up your public “face” (and with social media, everyone involved has some degree of forward facing!)
Of course, you can’t be all things to all people. Be honest about what it is that you want—and what you have to offer. Then, communicate the same, singular, unique value proposition across all your materials. If you have a clear unique value proposition (UVP), then it will be easy and natural to communicate to your staff.
Think of your favorite retailer, with multiple locations. What are the ways in which that company’s message (or unique value proposition) is communicated? How does that company help its employees communicate that message? Do they use particular signage? Do they employ company-specific language (e.g. Starbucks’ “grande”) and naming conventions (e.g. Disney’s “cast members”) to engender loyalty?
Now, think of a retailer who fails to convey a consistent message. It may do a poor job of communicating its unique value proposition to its employees, but more likely, the problem is that the company doesn’t have a unified message to begin with. If that’s the case, then naturally, there won’t be any consistency in its materials.
There are a host of ways to communicate your unique value proposition to your employees, including: internal print materials, intranet sites, office displays, events, and incentives. Of course, for these tactics to really work, you have to cut through the cynicism that today’s employees have.
The first step is communicating to employees that you have, in fact, identified your unique value proposition. “Hey, everybody, we know that we’re better than our competitors because we are…” Then, ask your employees if what you’ve identified is in line with what they see on the front end.
The fact is that if you can clearly communicate what your UVP is and why you’re doing something, it’s not difficult to get buy-in. Everybody likes to be number one. Frankly, it doesn’t even matter what you’re “the best” at…as long as you’re “the best” at something.
People are proud of where they work when they can clearly understand the benefit and the difference of the product or service they’re representing. Ask yourself: What is it about your unique value proposition that can make your employees feel like winners? Once you’ve identified that, your employees will gladly communicate your unique difference to the outside world, with pride.
Watch for the next post of this blog series where we get into Tip 4 and “Get to Know Your Target Audience, Intimately.” And if you haven’t downloaded Olga Mizrahi’s UVP Worksheet now is the time to do it. Click on this link, other goodies or visit ChunkofChange.com and get started on becoming “unique”!
