At our monthly NCAE meeting Monday night, our guest speaker was Anne Sandler of PIZZAZZ Communications. She spoke to us about how we could each develop our USP – Unique Selling Proposition. Anne explains that your USP is your ultimate benefit statement. It should be one line and stated in about 7 seconds.

To develop your USP, write down who your customers are and what their needs are. Then write down your services and what you do to fulfill your client’s needs. Then what’s in it for your client? How do your services benefit them? Then you can take that to write down your Unique Selling Proposition.

Here at Chief Virtual Officer, our USP is: “I help my clients go from employee to entrepreneur.”

Tonight is Collette Schultz’s monthly call for subcontractors. Her guest for April is Dawn Martinello. Dawn opened Monday Morning VA in February of 2009 and works with clients who are eager to enhance their online visibility. Her specialties include internet marketing, social networking, WordPress theme tweaks, creating and implementing systems and procedures, and general life + business co-ordination/automation. She’s the recipient of the VAccolade Business Entrepreneur Award from the Virtual Assistant Networking Association for demonstrating professionalism on the Web.

Register for this free call at Software Savvy Sub.

I’ve been talking with virtual assistants this week about defining their ideal client. When I ask my coaching clients to describe their ideal client as specifically as possible, the descriptions are still very vague. They are something like this:

“My ideal client is a self employed entrepreneur in a service related industry.”

“My ideal client is a business entrepreneur in the professional services.”

“My ideal clients are solo entrepreneurs.”

These are very vague and speak to a general audience. Even once a coaching client understands the need to target a very specific audience, they tend to speak to the group rather than an individual.

When my partner Joel coaches virtual assistants to define their ideal client, he helps them get very specific. Rather than targeting a general audience, we focus on targeting an individual. Here are 3 simple ways to focus your marketing messages to an individual:

1. Write a detailed paragraph of your ideal client: their gender, age, occupation, likes, dislikes, family situation and other details.

2. Name your ideal client. Make this individual real to you.

3. Go find a picture of that ideal client in a magazine. Cut it out and post it where you can see it all the time. When you get ready to send out marketing messages, look at that picture and see if the message will appeal to that ideal client.

Now that you’ve put a name and face to your ideal client, it will be much easier to target your audience and direct messages to the individuals that need your services.

Are you talking to a general audience or a specific individual? Would you like some assistance in defining your ideal client. Contact us for your free 30-minute consultation.

Several bloggers have already hosted interviews of our book, The Commonsense Entrepreneur- Becoming an Entrepreneur, Not an Employee and we greatly appreciate that.

We’re being hosted today, October 15, 2009, at this blog (thank you Lee):
http://myofficeassist.org/blog/2009/10/15/the-commonsense-virtual-assistant-becoming-an-entrepreneur-not-an-employee/

Other dates are:
10/23 – Rachel Rasmussen
http://rescuedeskblog.com

10/27 – Janine Gregor
http://yourvirtualwizard.com/Blog.aspx

Come join us on the tour and leave a comment.

I’m very excited to announce a new VA Coaching Program.

If you’d like to start your new year with a bang, subscribe to our 5-month program.

Benefits:

• Access by email 24/7
• One 1-hour phone call each month with Joel and Sue
• Review of website, particularly in the area of marketing and SEO, any marketing materials, including business cards, brochures, postcards, cold calling scripts, etc., blog, articles and rates
• Assistance developing description of your ideal client, creating a 30-60 second pitch, a one page business plan, one page marketing plan and marketing calendar
• Products as listed below, one each month
• PDFs as listed below, one each month
• Questionnaire to determine your specific coaching needs
• We only work with ten clients at a time

Books and CDs included, valued at over $100:
(one mailed each month of paid coaching)

• The Commonsense Virtual Assistant: Becoming an Entrepreneur, Not an Employee

• Motivation 101: 5 Steps to Activate Your Potential in Any Economy, An Audio Mastery Course

• 49 Commonsense Business Observations

• The Commonsense Entrepreneur

• Surprise bonus business book

Bonus PDFs included:

• Self Promotion: Getting Started – includes marketing tools and resources

• Blogging for Your Business: includes 3 Keys to Successful Blogging and 5 Ways to Promote Your Blog, Finding the Time to Write and What to Write About, Ideas on How to Get More Traffic to Your Blog and a questionnaire to help you get started

• Article Submissions and Press Release Sites

• Duct Tape Marketing Guide: 7 Steps to Small Business Marketing Success

• Marketing and Promoting Your Teleseminar: a list of online sites you can post your teleseminars

• Weekly teleclass with coaches Joel D Canfield and Jerry L Kennedy

• Digital copies of all Business Heretics products: audios and ebooks

• First look at all new Canfield Kennedy content posted at the website