Your (USP) Unique Selling Proposition is of the utmost importance!
Why you need a Unique Selling Proposition badly.
What we learn from Jay Abraham the renowned business expert in regards the U.S.P should not be taken lightly:
Most small business owners don’t have a U.S.P, they tend to blindly copy what is happening in the marketplace. There’s nothing unique; there’s nothing distinct. They promise no great value, benefit, or service – just “buy from us” for no justifiable, rational reason. And mostly they do it by trying to offer a better price.
Are you eager to buy from a firm that’s just “there,” with no unique benefit, no incredible prices or selection, no service or guarantee? Or would you prefer to deal with a firm that really makes you feel special and know what they talk about when it gets to their products and services?
If there’s no difference between you and the next guy except price, you can’t win. Why would you want to play the game of minimum profits?
It’s no surprise then that most businesses, lacking a U.S.P, merely get by. Their failure rate is high, their owners are bored, and they get only a small slice of the cake. Other than a possible convenient location, why should they get more business if they fail to offer any appealing promise, different feature or special service?
In today’s business world you must be different to attract the bigger share of pie. To quickly find out who and where you are in the minds of your clients look at your advertisement in the yellow pages, or the last advertisement you placed (if any). Does it say “me too” just like the rest? Ten to one it does.
Here are some real-world examples of U.S.P’s that made fortunes for the businesses that created them.
Coke – “The Real Thing.”
Avis – “We try harder.”
L’Oreal – “The most expensive hair colour in the world.”
Kellogg’s Raisin Bran – “Two scoops of raisins in every box.”
Standard Bank – “Simpler, Better, Faster” (Do you think they live up to this U.S.P?).
“M&Ms melt in your mouth, not in your hand.”
Your U.S.P is your company or product slogan – it is what you and your staff should live by, it is the pivot that your company, advertising and marketing revolves around. If you cannot find a USP for your company, find one for the product or service you concentrate on.
The U.S.P must be an advantage the customer really cares about. Not one that, although a difference, is trivial. You must differentiate your company or product to survive!
I hope it is not just a “better” price.
For your bakery it could be something like ‘King Louis Bakery, Home of the 12 Inch Monster Koeksister”
The U.S.P is a slogan or thought that will distinctly set you and your business favourably apart from every other competitor. It is something that your target market should remember when they need a product or service of the kind you offer.
Creating your U.S.P requires some serious thinking and brain-storming. Many people don’t like to think, but I think you should take the trouble and work on it until you get it right. The idea behind this is that when you solve your particular U.S.P, you will attract clients from what you perceive as your competition. That’s why it’s so important to spend time thinking about it. Testing it. And re-working it until it conveys what you want.
The U.S.P is exactly what it purports to be. It’s a concise statement of what you uniquely offer your customer. What is it that differentiates you? What is it that distinguishes you from your competitors? What is it that your customer gets that he or she doesn’t get anywhere else?
When you have your ideal U.S.P then you are unique, and by definition, you have no competition! That’s when you enter the realm of naming your own price.
Creating your U.S.P.
State your difference in terms of benefits to the prospect. Your uniqueness can be anything.
When you’re thinking about your own U.S.P, be creative. It can be location, 24 hour availability, better ingredients, better processes or faster delivery. Keep this in mind. If your U.S.P has emotional appeal and people can remember it easy then it will attract the target market you have in mind.
Think like a detective investigating a crime. Start with the known to uncover the unknown. This is what you are after, the unknown difference your competition does not know about.
Here is how to create it:
Write a paragraph of your new U.S.P. If one paragraph is not enough fill the page if you must. Once you have laid down the broad terms of your U.S.P start editing. Cut out the general statements, and focus only on the clearest, most specific promise you could possibly hold out. Then, rework and edit away the excess verbs or unclear statements until you have a clearly defined, clearly apparent Unique Selling Proposition that a customer can immediately remember and act upon.
Use your U.S.P in every marketing aspect of your business, such as your logo, business cards, direct mail and display advertisements. Get your whole staff and all the partners involved in this. Bring in the cleaning lady and ask questions. Get everyone involved. This is serious for the future of your marketing plans. You MUST create a U.S.P, come hell or high water.
These questions and ideas will help you to find your U.S.P.
Identify the primary hurt, frustration, problem, or threat, of your current market that you can solve. Once you know who you are, who you benefit, and how you can tell a convincing story to the right market then you have the basics of your U.S.P.
- What do you want to be identified with in your company?
- How do you want to leave your mark on society?
- What do you want to be famous for?
- Exactly who is your target market,
- What are the most important benefits your customer really wants when he/she purchases your product or service?
- What is the single biggest benefit the customer gets from your product?
- What is your greatest marketplace strength?
- What would your customers say is your greatest strength?
- What is the main complaint of customers in your industry?
- Where is it your competitors fear to tread? How can you exploit that for a competitive advantage?
What if you find no real difference between your products and your competitors’? Tell consumers something about your products that’s never been said before. This is a particularly effective way to create a U.S.P.
Develop a new claim, even if that claim is true for your competitors’ goods or services. The first one to make the claim will be the first to reap its benefits, because consumers will remember whoever was first to bring them news.
It can refer to who you are, what you do, how you do it, where you do it, or for whom you do it. All of these areas are potential U.S.P material.
For example, if you run a computer repair shop, don’t write that your technicians inspect every computer thoroughly before returning the machine to your customer. Write: “Our team of 11 technicians are all Microsoft certified and have at least five years’ experience doing what they do. On average, each technician has inspected 50-60 computers each week per year, so they have seen at least 12,000 computers in their experience; they’re bound to have seen a situation similar to yours. There are 12 steps to our inspection process and we use a checklist to ensure accuracy, which we then give to you when the job is done.”
Is this a U.S.P? Not yet, but it’s close. Now, imagine that your competitors in the computer repair business are all slashing prices by 10% to 15% during the same month. Their ads are in all the newspapers and on television. How do you compete? You counterattack with your U.S.P. It might read something like this: “Your computer won’t leave our workshop until it passes 12 quality checks, done by our certified technicians, all with at least five years and 12,432 computers worth of experience.”
Get the picture? Your U.S.P is right under your nose. All you have to do is take the time to look around your business and find it.
- Traits about your product or service that you can examine to create a winning U.S.P.
- Price – Do you offer the lowest/highest price in your industry? (why?)
- Value – Compared to your competitors’, is your product or service worth more? Does it save customers more time or money? If not, can you package or bundle several products or services together to create high value?
- Design – Does your product or service look better, or different?
- Convenience – Is it easier to buy from you than your competitors? Are you open for business 24 hours a day, 365 days a year?
- Service – Will you come out to fix or repair products at no charge?
- Performance – Can customers expect better, faster, cheaper performance using your product or service?
- Reliability – Does your product perform 99% of the time? 100%? Will it last for 10 years, 25 years? Does it need little or no maintenance?
- Technology – Is your product or service more advanced than your competitors’?
- Experience – Do you have more years of experience than your competitors? More importantly, what does this mean for your target market?
The point is to focus on the one area, or need that is currently lacking in the market place, provided you can keep the promise you make.
If you decide your U.S.P is that your company offers the broadest selection of products or services “instantly available” or “always in stock,” but in reality you only stock a small range and you order on demand, then you’re falling down on the promise of your U.S.P, and your marketing will probably fail. It is critical to always fulfill the “big promise” of your U.S.P
If you don’t honestly believe you can deliver on your U.S.P, pick another one to build your business on. Just be sure it’s unique, different and that you can fulfill it.
Remember, the U.S.P is the center around which you will build your success, fame, and wealth, so you’d better be able to state it clearly. If you can’t state it, your prospective clients won’t see it. Whenever a customer needs the type of product or service you sell, your U.S.P should bring your company immediately to mind.
Clearly conveying the U.S.P through both your marketing and your business performance will make your business great and success inevitable. But you must reduce your U.S.P to its bare essence. Cut it to the bone.
Once you have your U.S.P the battle is not over.
Integrating your U.S.P into your display advertisements is not enough. You must integrate it into every form of your marketing. When your salespeople call on prospects, everything they say should clearly reinforce your U.S.P They should explain the U.S.P to the customer in a clear, concise message. Even when talking to the client.
When you adopt a powerful, new, and appealing U.S.P, it gives new life, new excitement, new interest and new appeal to the marketing plan. You are suddenly different, instead of just being another company you are now on the customer’s side, and not just in it for the money.
However, remember this proverb: You cannot appeal to all of the people all of the time. In fact, certain U.S.P’s are designed to appeal to only one segment of a vast market. There is a huge difference between those who buy quality and the bargain seekers, and you probably can’t reach them both. Which do you want to stake out as your market niche? – I find that the bargain hunters and ultra price pushers are most of the time the clients who also brings you your biggest head aches.
I repeat. Don’t adopt a U.S.P that you cannot deliver. Study the market potential of various U.S.P positions in terms of volume, profits and repeat business.
For example, the highest marketing area may be in the exclusive, expensive U.S.P, but the biggest money may be made in the discount-market U.S.P There’s a place for both, but if you try to do both, you will probably not succeed. Remember too, that your U.S.P is giving advice, assistance and superior service; it can’t stop with mere sales talk. It must become total company policy. If someone calls in with a question, the people answering the call must be able to answer every question that’s put to them. The same goes for every person who deals with that customer on the floor, from the cashier and the delivery person to the service or repair people. You and your employees must live, breathe, and act your U.S.P at all times.
Teach your staff to use the U.S.P
It will be extremely good practice to write a outline of your U.S.P for your staff, how you’re trying to carry it out, and how everyone can project that U.S.P to the world. Make their cooperation a condition of employment. The entire company must adhere to the U.S.P
Talk to your staff, write scripts, hold contests, and reward people who distinguish themselves in promoting your U.S.P Set an example so that your staff can see the U.S.P in action.
Follow up after sales.
Always follow-up (incorporating the essence of your U.S.P) after a sale, even when it is a regular customer. You enhance the customer’s loyalty and value to your business by following up after the sale. A follow-up call, letter or postcard drastically reduces or eliminates cancellations, returns, refunds, complaints, adjustments and disputes. The follow-up call reassures customers of their good sense to purchase from you.
Good marketing requires that you give customers good reasons for their emotional buying decision. There is a formula for success, and the U.S.P, is a vital part of that formula.
Depending on the business, you should offer frequent special promotions to your customers by mail, telephone or in person. Everyone wants to feel appreciated. By offering your customers genuine, specially priced deals or first choice, you make yourself special to them. At the same time, you enhance your customers’ perception of your Unique Selling Proposition.
If your U.S.P is service, Then give them extended service at a better price.
Never underestimate the profit you can make on special offers. Acquiring new customers usually costs a small fortune. This way you make profit without taking out money to get new customers.
But once you deliver your product or service in a satisfactory manner to your customer base, you can continuously rework and resell at a very modest cost per sale. When you have a list of customers who have already shown their willingness to spend money on your products or services, it costs very little to go to them with additional products and services.
Your real wealth comes from repeat business which will only happen if every aspect of your business is an extension of your U.S.P
You can send a personal thank-you note, or a letter to customers. Don’t under estimate the value of holidays. Christmas card, birthday cards. Valentines day and the list of marketing opportunities goes on forever.
Above all, never, ever forget the fact that U.S.P is all about the client. It is not about you or the company. The U.S.P is not about bragging or exaggeration.
So what do you do if you are in the “once off” business like selling Garage Doors, Swimming Pools etc?
Take heart, even if you are really reliant on new sales and new clients most of the time there is hope for you once you’ve created your U.S.P. You will even generate regular business from builders and developers, as well as getting most of the new business out there in your target market. A U.S.P (if true of course) can read something like this:
“In the 16,577 pools we built last year, there was never a leak” or “We supply 64% of all garage doors in Centurion”.
YOUR USP IN SUMMARY:
-
Your USP should be a promise to customers, NOT just being a statement. “Promise” emphasizes the action and commitment behind a USP.
-
Integrate your USP into various aspects of your business, including marketing, sales, and customer service.
Devox created a complete and free copy writing course for you to succeed in your online venture.
