Discover The Power of a Great Unique Selling Proposition (USP)

Many of us have heard the various well known Unique Selling Proposition's (USP’s) such as “To our members, we’re the fourth emergency service” which is the Automobile Association USP or there is “Diamonds are forever …” by DeBeers or even “When your package absolutely, positively has to get there overnight” Fedex.

These companies have been extremely successful promoting their business using these very memorable USP’s. There is no doubt that these savvy USP’s have had an incredible impact on the success of these particular businesses. If you own or run a business and you have not invested the time to develop a powerful USP. Then you will find it much more challenging to set yourself apart in the particular marketplace that you operate in.

So let me first outline the very powerful benefits of taking the time to craft a USP for your own business. Then I will let you in on some great tips on how to use your USP as part of your sales and marketing activities.

So first things first…What’s a USP?

One definition of a unique selling proposition (USP, also called unique selling point) is a factor that differentiates a product from its competitors, such as the lowest cost, the highest quality or the first-ever product of its kind. A USP could be thought of as “what you have that competitors don’t.”

A USP is an introductory statement that will help to differentiate your business from your competitors. It is typically a reasonably short statement and depending on how well you craft your own particular USP you can expect it to help your business stand out from the crowd.

One of the biggest mistakes many businesses make is not being unique. Or drawing attention to what is distinct about there business when compared to other similar business. If you are attempting to establish yourself as a successful business in a competitive marketplace you must invest adequate time into doing all you can to differentiate yourself.

How Will a Great USP Help Your Business Thrive?

The businesses and individuals that you want to sell to need to have a reason for buying from you rather than from your competition.

You must be able to answer the question why should a prospect buy from you and your business over and above all other options open to them?

If you think about this, I’m sure you will have your own experience of looking to purchase a particular product and/or service. You are now in purchasing mode and searching for a company to do business with either by looking in the golden page or more likely you have done a Google search for a particular category of business and been overwhelmed by the number of results returned?

When this happens you probably don’t go through each business result in turn. You look for those that grab your attention and seem relevant. And more often than not you’ll pick a business that displays an eye-catching short statement (the USP) stating a benefit or purpose specific to that business.

This is the power of a great USP, it helps you stand out!

Make Your USP Clear & Specific

The more clearly you announce your USP the more often you’ll get chosen instead of your competition. Your objective is to ensure that when someone is looking to buy a product like yours, your company’s name is the first that comes to mind.

Unfortunately there are lots of USP’s around that are just not fit for purpose. Some are very witty and others quite humorous but when it comes right down to promoting products or services, they don’t do a very good job.

Make sure that your USP is clear and specific and you will want to avoid USP’s like: ‘The Best Selection’ or ‘Service with a Smile’. These are worn-out, tired and unspecific.

How to Identify and Develop Your USP

The one thing I would say having taken many, many business through my USP creation method is to take your time. You don’t want to rush the process and more often then not you will find yourself revising and re-revising your USP before settling on the USP is just right for your business. Ultimately you will be using it throughout your business on your business cards, in your literature and on your website. If you rush through the process and end up getting it wrong and need to make some changes, it will be a costly process.

Also this may seem obvious, but if your USP is a promise, then you must make sure you’ll be able to fulfill it. This is especially important if it’s a delivery promise with a money-back guarantee! Such as this Real Estate Agent’s: “Our 5-step marketing plan will sell your house in 30 days or the fee is reduced by a quarter point at closing.” You can see that they back their USP up with a price cut guarantee).

Research Your Market Before Picking a USP

Start by looking for urgent needs in your market area that aren’t being met (often called “performance gaps”). Many businesses that base their USP on performance gaps are successful. For example in the logistics sector many consumers get frustrated when told that there delivery will arrive between certain times in the day, they time off work to wait at home in anticipation of the delivery arriving at that time and then are left waiting for hours beyond the estimated delivery time.

So if there is something like that you can deliver on in your industry this can form the basis for a solid USP for your business.

Your USP Doesn’t Have to be Unique

After all we have said so far, this statement might surprise you because although a USP is a statement of your uniqueness it doesn’t always have to be unique – just make sure you proclaim it first!

You just have to stop making the wrong assumptions about what is meant by “unique”. Think about M&Ms USP, “Melt in your mouth, not in your hands”. They are not the only chocolates that melt in your mouth instead of in your hand. Have you heard of Smarties? And then there is Energizer batteries aren’t the only ones that keep on going and going. Heard of Duracell?

One of the best example of this can be found in Claude Hopkins classic book on marketing, “Scientific Advertising”. In it he tells a story of an advertiser who was hired by a beer brewing company. While touring the brewery, the advertiser was very taken with a machine which sanitized beer bottles by blasting steam into them. But his client told him not to try to use this as a selling point—because all breweries have a machine like this. There’s nothing unique about it.

But the advertiser wondered: how many people who drink beer really understand what goes into the beer brewing process would have heard of such a machine? He went on to create a successful campaign for a beer advertised as “so pure the bottles are washed in live steam.”

Once the campaign was run, what could competing breweries do? Advertise that their bottles were also washed in live steam?

So this leads to an interesting insight where you may find that there are competitors who start using a USP similar to yours, but you are the one who began using, so it’s yours. So if others start using a USP similar to yours, they will end up strengthening the advantage your USP has already fixed in your prospective customers minds.

A unique selling proposition doesn’t have to be unique to you. It just has to be unique to your ideal prospect. It’s not necessarily something which no one else offers. What it is…is a feature or benefit which no one else has yet marketed to your ideal prospect.

You have a USP…Now What?

Once you have crafted a string USP you then need to begin embedding your brand new USP into everything you do. It’s not something that you mention from time to time or use in an advertisement. It’s the single statement that becomes strongly linked with your business.

You can’t “over-do” or “wear out” your Unique Selling Proposition – especially if it’s powerful. The more you use it the better it will stick.

I truly believe that every business needs a solid USP. If you haven’t yet developed one, then do not delay the process any longer. Set aside the time and start today. To get you started I want to give you four savvy steps for developing your very own USP.

Here are four steps you can follow to develop one:

• 1. Research your marketplace. Start building a list of unmet needs or performance gaps.
• 2. Produce a list of possible USP’s. You may find it useful to look at the USP’s of your competitors. Make sure that your USP’s aren’t too long. (Aim for 4 to 6 words. Maximum of 10.)
• 3. Start trying out these USP’s on friends and colleagues. Select the most suitable one.
• 4. Start using your USP’s in meetings and conversations and on all your marketing materials (business cards, slide presentations etc.)

As your business grows, don’t forget to ask your customers why they decided to do business with you. When you do this you’ll find out how effective a good USP can be, especially if they use your USP in the answers they give!

If you would like to work with an experienced hand to guide you through the process of developing a strong USP that will help you stand out in your market place. Then the Savvy Business Gals Marketing Makeover Method may just be for you.

Also our website www.SavvyBusinessGals.com contains lots of useful information on practical marketing and sales advice and digital books and reports that you can download immediately to help you put our recommendations into practice in your business.

Rebecca Mahon, the author of this article, has been successfully helping businesses grow  for over fifteen years. She has published lots of articles and e-books to help businesses to develop effective marketing systems for there business that help them thrive.

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