How To Create A USP that Matches Your Message To Your Market

When some people hear the term unique Selling Proposition (USP), they think of their company slogan or tag line or something trite. What a lot of business owners don’t realize is that a good USP can make or break a business. It goes much deeper than a few words in an ad.

To start off, let’s understand what a USP is. A good Unique Selling Proposition should answer the question “Why should I do business with you, now, above any and all other options available?” Now, think about that for a minute. If you can’t answer that question – and you own the business – then why should a prospect even consider bringing you their business?

It goes even deeper than that though. A good USP is going to come from actually talking to your customers to find out what they want. You want to make sure that you match your message to your market. What good does it do if you stand on the street corner offering people black umbrellas if they are all looking for red ones? Oh, you may sell some because you are there, you may see a small increase in sales if it is raining out, but what if you actually had exactly what your customer was looking for? The only way you can do this is to first know what it is that your customer wants.

A Unique Selling Proposition should also be, well, unique to your business. Do you know what your competitors are doing? What are they known for? Do something different, stand out. A consulting client once was working on his USP. They were an industrial parts supplier. Once we went through the process of building a USP, we found that one competitor had a huge warehouse and high inventory levels – their USP was that they had everything you could need. So we decided not to compete on stock. Turned out what his customers were looking for could be oiled down to one word – reliability. This company had been in business for over 30 years, had a good reputation in their marketplace and we were able to build on that. They customers wanted parts – the right parts, good quality parts, delivered on time. Once we found that out, we had a place to work from.

When you start the process of coming up with your USP, be prepared to actually make changes to your business to support it. See, a USP is not just something you say, it is not even something you do, something you are. When you can become what your customers want, you win. In my example above, it would do no good to claim the USP of reliability if orders were being shipped incomplete or late or with poor parts. You have to be able to deliver on your USP. It becomes a point that you can build your business around. It must be reflected in your appearance, your presentation, your customer service, your sales people, your post-sales follow up, etc.

Find out what your market wants and deliver it consistently. Find something that you can focus on that will set you apart from your competition and have your message meet your market. Just that can turn your business around.

Advertiser Missed An Opportunity

I was recently driving home and heard an ad on the radio, now the odd time there are good ads on the radio but often they are not.  In this case an advertiser paid good money for an ad but missed a great opportunity.

It was for a local building supply store who had recently changed their brand such that they now represented a different chain.

The ad, though I don’t remember the actual words, went something like,

“We still have the same friendly service, the same low prices, the only thing that has changed is our name”.

I thought what a wasted opportunity!

Here is a perfect chance to invite people in to the store to see what is different.  Why not project the message,

“not only have we changed our name, but come in and see our new line of…”

“We have recently changed our name and as a result, we now have access to many products we couldn’t get before”

and so on.

You see, if all they do is tell you that they are the same as they were, then why would I go in to the store?  What is the call to action? (There was none in the ad by the way).

The point here is that you need to use every opportunity you can to get people in to your store.  What better time than after a name change, or renovation, or new manager, or whatever.  In fact, any reason you can think of can be a reason to come.  And people like to have a reason.  You give them a reason and they will come.

And the reason should not be “because we are the same as we were before”.

A lost opportunity.

Lowest Price As A USP

In the absence of any other differentiation, lowest price becomes the deciding factor on a purchase. What that means is that if you don’t give your customers a better reason to shop with you, they can only compare your price against others and go to the lowest price.

This is not a place where you want to be as a business, you will likely go out of business in a hurry. You would be far better to stand out in your marketplace with a different message and change the focus of your Unique Selling Proposition (USP) – that is your marketing message – to something else that matters to your customers. Your USP needs to answer the question “why should your prospects do business with you above any and all other options”. And you need to give a compelling reason.

Lens Crafters will get your glasses ready in about an hour, Wal Mart is the low price leader (one of the few businesses to successfully pull off this USP), Domino’s Pizza was the first to deliver in “30 minutes or it’s free”.

Each of these companies chose a particular feature of their business and decided to become the leader in that marketplace.

Is there a void in your marketplace? What can you do or deliver that no one else in your marketplace can? Then, before you decide on a USP, make sure that it matters to your customers. It might be an acccomplishment to be able to deliver a certain widget in 10 minutes but if your customers don’t care, or that is not what they are looking for, then don’t try to make it your USP. It won’t help you if no on is looking for that feature.

Find some way to stand out in your marketplace. Something that matters to your customers and that is currently not being delivered to them. Integrate that into your business, sales and marketing do deliver the message over and over, consistantly.

If you don’t find a way to stand out, your customers will buy on price and you will either lose customers or lose money.

How To Integrate Your USP

Once you understand what your USP is, it is important that you integrate it and impliment it into your business. A good place to start is to make sure that you publicize it so that every one can see right away who you are in the marketplace and what you stand for. This will identify you to your target market.

You should start by placing your USP on:

• Your business cards
• Your website
• Any print or media advertising
• Actually in your place of business – maybe or your counter/checkout/desk, etc
• Signage
• Answering machine

Why?

It is important that your customers know exactly who you are and why they should do business with you.

It is more than that though.

Your USP is not simply words, a sentence or paragraph. It should become the essence of your business. Once you determine your USP, you may have to change the way you do things, the suppliers you use or something in your processes in order to be able to deliver what you are promising.

If a pizza shop guarantees delivery of pizza in 30 minutes, they better be able to make the pizza in less 25 minutes. Once you determine what your customers are looking for and what needs they have, you can determine how you are to meet those needs, then you build your business around that and deliver.

What is a USP?

U.S.P. stands for “Unique Selling Proposition”. This indicates what is different, special, unique about your business. What sets you apart in your marketplace?

Ultimately, your USP should answer this question in your customer’s mind:

“Why should I do business with you above any and all other options?”

Is very important that you know exactly why your customers should do business with you. If you don’t know why your customers should do business with you, then you will not be able to communicate this to them.

Your USP can and should communicate the specific benefit that your customer will receive by purchasing your product or service. The idea here is to pull out a specific benefit that your product or service offers and promote that so that when your customer requires that benefit they associate your product or service with it.

Your USP should be unique. You should be making a claim that no one else in your marketplace either can make, or is making.

Let’s look at some examples:

Domino’s Pizza: “You get fresh, hot pizza delivered to your door in 30 minutes or less — or it’s free.”

When Domino’s came out with this USP, they targeted a market that no one else had focused on. They thought of all the things that could make them unique and decided to offer fast delivery of their product. They did not claim to have the best tasting, healthiest, most organic pizza available. They only promised that they were delivered quickly. What this did was identified them in the marketplace as the pizza store with fast delivery. If you wanted pizza NOW, you automatically called Domino’s. They only had to make one claim and target one market. In a short time they became a market leader.

FedEx: “When your package absolutely, positively has to get there overnight”

When FedEx came out with this USP, they were trying to carve out their place in the market. They certainly did all kinds of delivery (overnight, second day, ground, air, etc) however their business started to grow quickly when they clearly identified who they were and what the benefit was to the customer. Again, they selected one benefit they could offer the customer and communicated that message so if a customer had to deliver a package quickly, they automatically would call FedEx.

These USP’s became famous because they worked. They communicated the specific benefit a specific market and then delivered.

Here are some other good examples:

M&M’s: “The milk chocolate melts in your mouth, not in your hand”

Wonder Bread: “Wonder Bread Helps Build Strong Bodies 12 Ways”

Head & Shoulders: “You get rid of dandruff”