In the immortal words of Tywin Lannister:
Any man who must say, “I am the King”, is no true king.”
Unique selling proposition (USP): the unique benefit that a particular product or service offers to its clients. As a term, it was coined by E. Jerome McCarthy in 1960, but it got adopted into the startup culture post the dot-com bust in the early 2000s.
Now, I agree that a USP is an important thing to think about, but it’s often used far too directly.
“I am the best dentist in this country” or “You could not have found a better match to your problem” are just different ways of saying “I am the king”. Even when it’s 100% true, it’s too blunt, and unsophisticated, it really sounds like you have something to prove.
When you are really confident, it is probably enough to imply the situation, rather than flaunt it, and nudge the audience to come to their own conclusion. Something like “60% of my patients are senior politicians and top fashion models” for the dentist, and “I’m happy to get 66% of my price after you get your result” for the well-fitted-to-the-problem-expert. Both of these imply balance and confidence, without loudly insisting on an otherwise hard-to-prove status.
As a rule, when you get a chance to sing your own praises, always take it, but do it in a way that only uses phrases they understand to show them “who is king”, rather than telling them that outright.
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