Verbal business card case study

For instance, in my case, “I take small business owners on a field trip through their own business where I show them 16% growth or more in 16 weeks or their money back.”

I recently pondered the difficulty small business owners have with describing their business in a way that stands out from the pack. Usually this problem is more pronounced when a business owner has not seriously worked on developing their Unique Selling Proposition (USP).

The USP is the differentiating idea that justifies what makes a business, product or service uniquely valuable to the marketplace. It is an expression of the competitive advantage that causes a business to survive in the short run, and thrive, in the long run.

A recent need to update this blog brought my attention to the WordPress “web hosts” page. It really highlights the dilemma faced by many advertisers when they have to share the stage with their competitors.

This is really no different from any other “Red Ocean” marketing platform like:

1. A Yellow Pages Listing crowded with your competitors
2. Google Search Engine Results Pages crowded with your nearest competitors
3. Online local directory listing results
4. Portal Website advertising results pages (i.e. “Wedding photographer” on TheKnot.com)

…and many other such platforms.

The ability to create a headline concept is vital to separating yourself from the crowd in such environments. All your verbal business card is a highly mobile, highly customizable headline for your mobile sales script (or networking script).

One of the most interesting verbal business cards I ever heard was from a Jay Abraham seminar audio in which one of the participants said,

“I make loans to dead people”!

Now that’s a headline that keeps attention. How could anybody resist asking, “How”?

Well, it turned out he was in a niche of the mortgage business lending to probate estates.

I hope this helps you think about your own business in a new way, gives you new ideas for making your listings and ads more competitive, and helps you rescue dollars you’ve already spent on advertising.