Article

Motivate your customers

The typical propane retailer is working with a Unique Selling Proposition that was probably passed down from the previous generation of management or ownership.

Many retailers still take pride in talking about the features of their businesses that make them better than the competition and the way they train customers to do business with them. As Bob Dylan once put to music, “The Times They are a-Changin.’”

Unique Selling Proposition
The Unique Selling Proposition (USP) was invented in the early 1940s with the belief that USPs were what products needed to be perceived better than their competitors’.

Theoretically, a good USP will set your company apart from the competition.

The USP tends to focus on features with a view from the seller’s products and service performance (company centric). It is the one statement that captures what you are featuring for customers. In checking several propane retailers’ Web sites, I find USPs that are sprinkled with words like safe, full service, reliable, responsive and dependable. Those same words are found in their Yellow Pages ads, mailers and brochures. Sometimes there are other things included that seem to complement the USP, but that information is often feature related too.

You probably find that it is becoming increasingly difficult to have a USP that is effective in the marketplace, especially when dealing with an energy commodity like propane. The USP is subject to imitation or cloning. Your “me too” selling proposition means you are much more likely to discount your installation service and propane price to gain and keep customers. When you do gain customers, you train them to do business your way and wonder why they leave you one or two years later. It is time to consider a better way to motivate your customers and prospects.

Unique Buying Proposition
The Unique Buying Proposition (UBP) is newer on the scene and is focused on the key buying motivators of a customer. The UBP is about the customer and what the customer will gain from doing business with a company (customer centric). The UBP pays attention to what the customer wants instead of what the company is selling. It is about benefits instead of features and which benefits motivate the customer to buy. Price may be in the mix, but it is not the only factor.

Buying motivators in the customer’s UBP can vary in number, and it can change from time to time and from customer to customer. A prospect may have one set of motivators to become a customer and a somewhat different set to stay with you. This can be challenging to manage, but the good news is that you probably don’t have to match up with all of them to get and keep their business. The key to your success is knowing which motivators are most critical to the majority of your customers and prospects and how you address them.

There can be many buying motivators, and often it is a combination of motivators that makes the difference. The motivators that seem to best match up with propane are:

• Need for recognition (feeling like a special customer)
• Gain instinct (getting a good deal all of the time)
• Security instinct (staying warm and safe)
• Convenience instinct (finding it easy to do business)

Perhaps you should revisit your business decisions and policies on tank monitoring, interactive Web site, meters, social networking, tank purchase and lease options, price protection offers, underground tanks, safety programs like Gas Check and CETP, and other potential motivators.

How do you find out what motivates your customers? Ask them and listen to what they say. Let me know what you find out, and I will share everyone’s results. Spend time defining the UBP of your typical propane customers and make sure you are offering the benefits that motivate them to buy from you.

Defining your customer’s UBP will likely make your existing USP obsolete. Create a new one that more closely matches with what motivates customers to buy from you. Your rewards will include more new customers, less customer churn and higher profits.

Remember the end of that Bob Dylan song: “Then you better start swimmin’ or you’ll sink like a stone.”