Let’s talk about providing value. Before we talk about it, you really need to understand yourself, and what is your USP. No, it's not the people that deliver your mail! USP is your unique selling point.
And what it basically means is this:
“How do you stand out differently from others that may be providing the same services, or the same benefits that you are?”
One of the ways people incorrectly do this is that they are focusing on their stuff. They're focusing on their products. They're focusing on just the opportunities, and there's nothing wrong with that, but they're getting it backwards.
They're not focusing on themselves first.
How do you sell yourself?
The way that you sell yourself is by providing value to other people. You need to provide that unique selling point that represents you first and your product second.
What makes you stand out?
For me, it's a couple of things. It's being a physician of 20 years, learning over the years the importance of listening to people. That is my unique selling point, having that ability not to hear others but to listen.
Hearing and listening are not the same.
Hearing is just absorbing the words and waiting to jump in with what you have to say. It’s more about you and your response.
Listening is actively engaging in the conversation and giving your attention to them.
Second, I have that ability to be able to ask the right questions at the right time, determining what is the person's problem, what is the situation they're trying to get out of or overcome.
So, one of the things that I think everybody should take up as far as just being a leader, is just learning to listen to people. Everybody wants to jump in and just talk in and talk.
When they're in the middle of a conversation, they're just quick to think about what's the next thing that they want to say.
I encourage you, when someone's just talking to you, shut up, and just listen to what they have to say.
You'll be amazed if you just open your mind to focusing on what they have to say and not focusing on the next thing that's going to come out your mouth, you're going to realize soon that you are really missing out on a lot of the conversation that you may have had in the past.
By simply just relaxing and listening, you're going to pick up so much more.
That's the big thing. You just want to learn to listen, and then in time, you understand the person's problems. When you understand your fanbase's problems, when you understand the people that are following you, the people that you're mentoring, what their problems are, then you can ask the right questions.
Once you develop that rapport, then you can tailor them to the opportunity, the benefit, or the different strategies that you feel that are going to be able to best help and serve them.
So, like I said, you just want to build your value first by listening, and then asking the right questions.
Along the way, this allows you build that rapport and present yourself as the person that really understands and has that expertise in the subject. When you get to the point where you've built rapport with people, and they see you as the authoritative figure, they understand:
"This person cares about me. This person listens to me. This person asks me questions instead of just trying to push stuff down my throat."
So, that's what I wanted to talk about today, as far as providing value.
First, understand what your unique selling point is. How do you stand out differently from all the other people?
Second, learn to just quiet your mind and listen to people.
Third, learn to ask the right questions once you understand what their problem is, and you get that by listening to people.
And then, as you're building rapport, four, you're going to build yourself as the expert and provide them the value they desire.
So, until next time, take care and be well!
