Tips to Avoid Demo Drama - Tip 16: USPs (Unique Selling Points) can be your worst enemy

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Has someone ever told you that you need to push your Unique Selling Points (USPs)? USPs are seen as perfect ammunition to use when you can match customer expectations.

However, we all know that we are not living in a perfect world and expectations often do not match the USPs. This may be painful, but it is the truth.

Is it possible to both meet expectations and push your USPs? Sometimes, but it can be very tricky. Rule number one is always to meet expectations. If you do not and you are pushing USPs instead, you will lose your audience. You have to satisfy expectations before you can discuss USPs.

One trick that I have been using over the last couple of years is to showcase a USP early in my presentation. I usually do this as a way to showcase a specific example or strengthen a positioning message. However, it must be a very quick showcase (max 3 minutes) and must be 100% related to the subject, otherwise it can go all horribly wrong. The trick is not to spend too much time on this and avoid any questions. See it as a movie trailer to tease the audience, and not as the main feature.