In Bryan Todd’s “Breakthrough USP” training, he pointed out that in the real world, a business has not one but THREE facets of its USP:

1) The Front Page News,

2) The Back Page News, and

3) Unreported News.

Front Page News is: What you are obviously, visibly known for. Example: Big Ass Fans. Yes, these fans are very very big, and they have donkeys in their ads and Refrigerator Perry as celeb spokesman.

Back Page News is: What you are obviously, visibly known for is rarely enough, all by itself, to build a solid sustainable business. For Big Ass Fans, their Value Proposition goes far deeper than signing autographs at a trade show booth and getting a chuckle.

They have an entire section of their website devoted to the economics of their product vs. buying fans for each employee in your factory vs. air conditioning and all that. They have guys with degrees in aerospace designing their fan blades and running tests in wind tunnels.

That’s Back Page News.

Notice in this case, the Back Page News the *real* reason people buy their product.

Then there’s Unreported News.

Unreported News is the surprise, the unexpected bonus, and very often concerns the values and convictions that drive your company.

This must be handled delicately. I gave a talk at Dream Chicago in August and I said, “Any time you’re at some seminar, and some guy who sells real estate stuff is talking about properties and all the sudden he stops in the middle of his presentation and says,

‘And I just want to give thanks to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who gets all the credit for my success’

…and then goes on to pitch you on his real estate deal…

…that guy is probably a psychopath. Run, run run!”

Yep, that’s what I said. (I’ve got a right to say that too, cuz I’m a Christian.)

What the guy is really telling you is, “Buy from me cuz I love Jesus.” In my experience, that guy’s got an indictment and prison sentence in his future.

And you better not get caught up in it.

The Jesus part doesn’t have to be Unreported News. But it is most definitely NOT front page news.

I am not in any way discouraging you from espousing your beliefs. But you must be very careful to focus on the RESULTS you deliver and not get distracted with selling your VIRTUE and your VALUES.

By the way I am also saying that you NEED unreported news, to be a total and healthy company. Customers should get *more* than what they were promised and there needs to be more to you and your organization than just a commercial proposition.

In my experience with clients, fully fleshing out your USP and truly hitting paydirt takes at least a couple of hours. The power of this is exponential. Suddenly everything in your biz becomes easier. Ads write themselves. Customers magnetically attract.

My team is meeting without me in Jacksonville Florida December 4. My very best guys are holding a very small hands-on workshop. Every attendee will get a couple of hours exclusive focus with John, Matt, Bryan and Jack. These guys have produced tens of millions of dollars of success stories with all kinds of startups.

You’ll also witness the re-invention of four other businesses, in real time. This will be INTENSE.

If you’ve got all the basic biz pieces in place but you know your USP isn’t the diamond-tipped saw blade it could be, join. Cuz it will be.

Only 3 seats left:

http://www.perrymarshall.com/usp/

Perry Marshall

About the Author

Perry Marshall has launched two revolutions in sales and marketing. In Pay-Per-Click advertising, he pioneered best practices and wrote the world's best selling book on Google advertising. And he's driven the 80/20 Principle deeper than any other author, creating a new movement in business.

He is referenced across the Internet and by Harvard Business Review, The New York Times, INC and Forbes Magazine.