If you have a thorough knowledge of your unique value proposition or your unique value proposition and you think that’s enough to get people to buy from you, you’re REALLY MISTAKEN.

People buy for their reasons and not yours.

I bought a chicken last week because I had guests to celebrate and NOT because of any reasons the seller could cook up.

Now that we know our USP isn’t enough to make a compelling presentation, the goal is to start a compelling conversation around those themes.

So instead of saying “good morning Aunty, I am now selling good quality bags and shoes from Lagos, Malaysia and some from the UK. My prices are really good. Aunty please come and help me and buy from me”, we should try instead to build conversations around the themes of our USP.

In this case we’ve previously identified them as 1. The GOOD QUALITY of her shoes and bags 2. The SOPHISTICATED SELECTION she has curated from Lagos, Malaysia and the United Kingdom 3. Her LOW PRICES... and the belief that since Alice and “Aunty” are related, she should help a family member buy from her to encourage young female entrepreneurship.

Instead of going into a presentation or sales pitch about the good quality of her bags, Alice should build conversations around bags that Aunty already has. At that point she can go into questions of origin and quality. This will let us know if her aunt is even concerned about the quality and the origins of her fashion accessories.

If Aunty is concerned about these things, then they’ll be good things to talk about!

How about, “Aunty I like this your bag o!”

Future questions would include “where did you get it from? How much did you get it for? Did you prefer this kind of leather over that?” ...and other kinds of questions you bag merchants and aficionados would care to ask.

The answers to the questions would give you a sense of whether Aunty is looking for more bags, the kind of bags she likes, her budget or spending power, and the flow of the conversation would let you know if Aunty is the kind of customer you’d like to flow with.

It’s only after you have all this information that you’d know if it makes sense to start “toasting” Aunty to buy from you.

What about other items in our USP list? We’ll explore those in the next post.

In the meantime ask me anything in the comment section below.