You’re meeting and speaking casually with a prospect, and everything is going great. You showed a few slides, you asked some good open-ended questions, and you’re getting good vibes about how it’s all going.

And then, you notice the barometric pressure in the room change. You even notice the light flickering a little. The buyer asks how you’re different from your competitors. (Gulp.)

How long do you think you have to pause and think before you need to speak and answer with a cogent, smart, tailored answer?

The customer just asked how you are different from your competitors. This is not just a defining moment in the meeting, it’s a seminal moment in your cultivation of this prospect and the account.

Luckily, you’ve trained for this moment and confidently and immediately respond with a tight 20-second explanation of your company’s value proposition. Good job.

Unique selling proposition. Differentiators. Value package. And yes, value proposition…or simply, VP. They’re all the same thing, and it’s the most important selling tool you have in your toolkit. Those sellers in the TOP 10% can bend, shift, adjust, and frame their VP to make an Eskimo agree to a multi-year subscription for bespoke ice packages and home delivery. (Promo code: ICE4ESKIES.)

You probably already use your VP in numerous use cases (i.e., opening a meeting, closing business), but owning your VP means you can confidently present your VP on demand. The most important use case is when a customer asks how you differ from your competition. In that instance, there is little room for error. Like…none.

Maybe you’ve experienced the magic of owning your VP: when you proactively use your VP to explain your differentiators to your buyers in customer meetings. Whooooo, baby! Go! Go you. Go, you and your VP!

Practice your value prop today.

It doesn’t matter how long you’ve been selling, there’s always an upside to practicing and owning your VP.

In this case, practice means role-playing. Yes, role-play. It’s the only way to train for the moment when a customer asks you to explain your differentiators. When that moment comes – and it will – you’ll have exactly 1.76 seconds to respond in a cool, calm manner that sounds intelligent and human.

Role-playing will help you fine-tune your message because when the VP comes out of your mouth, it has to sound unrehearsed and natural.

Nothing against your marketing department, but if you recite the VP they created to a customer, you might be met with strange looks. Often, VPs are written as sales collateral, not talking tracks.

To get to a place where your VP sounds great to your customers, you may want to try these two ideas:

1. Edit the VP so it is street ready. This does not infer you will anger your marketing, enablement teams or even your sales manager. In fact, speaking up about needed edits will unleash other feedback and suggestions that will help strengthen this dynamic tool for everyone.

2. Once you have developed a talk track that sounds right to you, practice saying the words aloud to hear how they sound. Take it a step further and speak the VP into your phone’s voice recorder app; it’s guaranteed you’ll hear things you can improve upon when listening to the recording. That move will help you apply easy fixes that make the VP sound more human and customer-focused.

One more step to take your VP practice higher is to grab a friend inside the org and role-play different scenarios. VPs are dynamic tools that should be framed individually for every customer and different situations. Practicing them with a peer will sharpen your skills and turbo-charge this skill for you.