Your unique twist…

Entrepreneurs love to talk about a problem they are solving, targeting existing inefficiencies or how their product adds value to a consumer.

That’s a great start. It’s also quite likely that incumbents have identified the same problems and inefficiencies and have solutions in the market.

To begin, table stake features are needed to start conversations with investors, customers and partners.

If there is no twist in the story, reception is likely flat.

The twist has to be strong, emphatic and create an “aha” in the listener.

That twist needs to be honed time and again as it gets socialized over and over.

People refer to this as USP — the Unique Selling Proposition aka differentiators. Great CEOs and talented sales persons are relentless in discovering, documenting, socializing and following through on their USP.

Can simply world class execution be your USP? It’s hard to gauge this beforehand unless you have already notched a great backstory. It’s powerful to ground the USP on a solid understanding of the landscape. It makes the conversation very exciting because you don’t have to “follow up”.

Best of luck in differentiating.