Defining your product, market and difference

David J Lilly, glass artist shares his tips on defining products and services and the importance of communicating what makes you different. 

OK, so you want to make ‘stuff’.  Your stuff may be an object or a service – but what makes what you do different and desirable above the rest? This is the most difficult thing to define. 

If you expose your work in a public forum you may get acclaim for it from a commercial body.  Often these awards are based on commercial potential based on the criteria that the awards giver has.  You may love making ceramics in a form that appears ‘commercial’, but you may wish to make them in small batches by hand.  This work may catch the eye of a ceramics manufacturer who would love your designs within their portfolio and may award your skills to encourage you to move in their direction.

BEWARE – this kind of offer is very tempting and it may fulfil your short-term needs for cash, but it may remove the ‘heart’ of what you do.  I’m not saying don’t do it, I’m saying think it through first.  Discuss the offer with others who work in the same or similar industry or craft and then take your time and think long and hard about if before you make a decision.

Before any of that happens, think through the following:

1. What do I create; what makes it different and unique?
2. Who am I making these objects/services for?  Who are my potential clients, do I know their demographic?
3. Why should people buy what I make? What is it about my product or the design/sales/after-sales service that makes it compel as a unique offer?
4. Why do I want to create this thing and bring it to market?  Who could benefit from this object or this service? Is it so different and important that everybody should be engaging with it daily for their own benefit?

One way to help you define the above is to ask potential clients or past clients the following:

1. What could I have done better with the service I provided?
2. What can I do to ensure you want to buy from me?
3. Do you feel you got what you wanted from what I supplied you?
4. What is it about what you perceived I would supply when you ordered from me that set me apart from other potential suppliers?
5. If you were my sales agent how would you market my offer?

Do this analysing and track your thoughts and the replies from your customers and look for patterns.

Your customers may all say that you responded faster then other potential suppliers.  They may say that your product or service is better than others they had considered buying from – capture that information and use it in your USP. 

Your USP – Unique Selling Proposition

The term has been around for decades now but is as relevant today as ever.  I received a phone call about a SEO service to get my website on page one of Google.  This business only wanted £149.00 per month, with no contract.  Sounded good, but when I asked what made them different and why I should buy from them they could not answer, just provided rhetoric “man-to-man isn’t this the kind of deal you can’t say no to?”. 

That kind of sales pitch turns me off.  Appealing to something that you perceive will connect with your client is good, but an approach that might challenge someone’s perception of themselves is not.  This guy used the phrase ‘man-to-man’ which to me is archaic, rude and makes a lot of assumptions that are fatal flaws when it comes to selling.

So, use what you discover and create your USP and ask others whether they think it:

1. Defines you personally
2. Defines what you do succinctly
3. Makes you stand out from the crowd
4. Is appealing enough to be a ‘call-to-action’

Get all that right and you’ll be ready to go out to market and get business.

Thank you to David for providing this blog. For more information visit David's website here or to get in touch call 07796 141180. 

If you want to contribute to the Chamber blog, contact us on hannah@brightonchamber.co.uk