The Myth Of The “One Stop Shop”

I frequently consult with business owners who are achieving some success via the web and are looking for insights and strategies for improving their results.

After establishing where they are now and where they want to be, I come up with a plan of action to connect the two.

First part of that process is to consider my client’s Unique Selling Proposition – this is the bedrock upon which all other marketing tactics stand.

More often than not, a struggling or semi-successful company has NO Unique Selling Proposition at all.

Typically, the clearer a business owner is about their USP, the better their business seems to be performing (Coincidence? Unlikely.)

Then there are those businesses who have what I call a “faux USP” – the type of USP that is not actually appealing to their target market.

One type of “faux USP” that crops up frequently is the “One Stop Shop”.

e.g.  “We’re a one stop shop for anyone interested in building wealth.  I’m an accountant and I have a mortgage broker and a financial planner and a conveyancer to whom I can refer clients”.

It sounds so great in theory — what could be more convenient?

Trouble is, it seldom works.

This is because One Stop Shops dilute the Power of Focus to convey your expertise to the market.

Whom would you rather entrust your life to: a heart surgeon who is also a brain surgeon and an orthopedic surgeon — or a heart surgeon who specialises in heart surgery alone?

So too with the Internet – searchers tend to be looking for specific answers to specific problems.

Trying to solve too many problems at once can be a mistake when you’re creating and nurturing relationships with prospects.

But don’t your customers want a more complete solution?

But hang on, you say.  If I’m getting my tax returns done, mightn’t I have a need for a good mortgage broker or financial planner?

Sure you might.  And if that’s the case, the accountant could and should refer you on to his colleagues in those areas.

But that’s different from promoting those auxilliary services ahead of time.

Of course, there are some apparent exceptions to this rule that aren’t actually exceptions upon further analysis.

If you promote an overall “solution” which requires the involvement of multiple product or service elements, it’s typically better to sell the whole solution, then package in the components as part of your delivery.  The client doesn’t actually care that you do X, Y and Z to create their financial plan — they just want to see the result.

This approach is the one we take at Marketing Results – the core solution we offer is online lead generation.   While individual delivery components might come into play (e.g. AdWords management, conversion optimisation, search engine optimisation), those services are subordinated to achieving the overall result.

It’s also worth noting that these individual delivery components are situated in a fairly tight thematic cluster around the core solution – in a sense, they are different facets of the same diamond.

While we could offer a broader range of marketing services such as copywriting, graphic design, logo development, marketing plan development etc., these would tend to dilute our “centre of gravity” in the eyes of the prospect and over time, result in less sales effectiveness, not more.

Something to think about…if you’re currently a One Stop Shop, take a quick reality check to confirm you’re not perceived by your market as a “jack of all trades but master of none”.