Enhance Your Unique Selling Proposition
Having a strong Unique Selling Proposition can help you gain a
distinctive edge in any competitive marketplace. Your USP, also
known as a Unique Selling Advantage or Unique Competitive
Advantage, helps to position you in the eyes of your prospect.
It should clearly and succinctly communicate to your prospective
customer why he or she should buy from you.
The best USP's come about from an in-depth understanding of your
industry and competition. To create a fantastic USP, you need to
know first what your competitors are using.
Your USP tells the marketplace what you offer, what makes you
different from the other guys and what you'll do for them that
will make them want to do business with you over and above all
the other options available... including doing nothing. Your USP
should focus on what you do best and what clearly distinguishes
from all other competing businesses.
Keys To Success
The most successful USP's focus on a big emotional benefit that
company offers that no one else does. It's vital to know your
competition. Domino's Pizza's famous promise of pizza delivered
to your door in "30 minutes or less, or it's Free" helped
created a huge business and revolutionized the pizza delivery
business.
You'll maximize your results when you create a compelling, huge
promise that you can consistently deliver on and that you
communicate everywhere. Promote your USP everywhere including;
business cards, letterhead, all marketing materials, web site,
product packaging, Yellow Pages Ads, etc.
How?
The best system I've seen for developing a strong USP, comes
from Marketing guru, Jay Abraham. He suggests taking out 2
sheets of paper. On one sheet write, "You Know How..." and on
the other write "Well, what we do is..."
Here's an example of this formula in action:
"You know how most home cleaners only work to schedules that
suit them. Well, what we do is send a crew whenever you want,
anytime of day or night, 7 days a week, including holidays, 52
weeks a year. When you want your home cleaned, we're there fast,
guaranteed!"
Here's another:
"You know how most contractors promise a hassle-free renovation,
then... they're always behind schedule, leave your house a
mess... and they even have the nerve to charge you 15% more than
their estimate! Well what we do is ensure your job will be
completed on time and at the initial price quoted - 100%
guaranteed! And, our crew understands that you're living in your
home throughout the renovation, so we promise to take extra time
at the end of every day, just to clean up any mess. We help you
create dreams... not nightmares."
Now, you may want to edit these examples down a manageable size,
but by going through this exercise, you'll come up with a
powerful USP that sets you apart. The length of your ideal USP
depends on the nature of your business and the means you'll use
to communicate it.
Examples
U-Haul offers an interesting USP with, "Only U-Haul Moving Vans
Have Low Decks And Gentle-Ride Suspensions". ING Direct promises
"Higher Interest Rates, No Minimum Balance and No Fees Or
Service Charges". And Xerox offers "A Simpler Way To Do Good
Work".
More resources at www.makeyoursalessoar.com