Course Category: Buisness Development

What are client pain points – and how might we solve them?

How to support our aim to create longer-term, consultative relationships with our clients rather than purely transactional

Spotting the pain points to discuss with senior team members to establish potential opportunities to deepen a relationship by increasing our service offering to go over and above and become a supplier of choice

Recognising the signs to introduce a client to a director to discuss alternate or additional service models

How to understand your clients’ problems so you can properly qualify clients and roles – stop wasting time on clients that are not ready to buy but also identify if this actually identifies an opportunity to upsell instead – long game vs short game

Really embody the quality service offering we detail in our bids and tenders

For you to work on the wrong jobs absolutely guarantees you greatly reduced recruiting percentages.

Chances are even if you do recruit the candidate brilliantly, the placement probably will not come together.

Why not?

Well, you may be selling an opportunity that isn’t all that great, the client may not be serious or a host of other problems.

Moreover, even if we do have flaws, working on the right job will compensate for a multitude of our flaws.

The fundamentals of completing a successful placement start with working on the right job.

What is a USP?

The Unique Selling Proposition concept was originally developed by a genuinely creative marketing man named Rosser Reeves in 1961.

In his book Reality in Advertising, Reeves laments that the USP is widely misunderstood. He outlined three basic rules for an advertisement that encapsulated his ideas about the USP:

  1. Each advertisement must make a proposition to the consumer—not just words, product puffery, or show-window advertising. Each advertisement must say to each reader: “Buy this product, for this specific benefit.”
  2. The proposition must be one the competition cannot or does not offer. It must be unique—either in the brand or a claim the rest of that particular advertising area does not make.
  3. The proposition must be strong enough to move the masses, i.e., attract new customers as well as potential customers.

What is Not a USP?

It sounds simple; we all think we have a “USP.” But do we? Many times what we think is a “USP” is not.

A Unique Selling Proposition is not a platitude. It is not something that is stated to be “unique” when in fact it is not, nor is it something that is simply expected.

“We check references” or “we screen candidates tightly,” for example, is a platitude, not a USP; they expect it.

A Unique Selling Proposition is something no one else can say or at least not with veracity. It separates you from the “competition” and is a clear benefit to the prospective client.

This session, hosted by Matt, explains his method for breaking down barriers with clients to effectively business develop.

Watch the video in the lesson and you can download the session notes from the shared drive

G:\21. Consultants Training Documents > Golden Brick Mapping