If you are facing these issues, you need a unique selling proposition (USP):
- Do you hardly experience any growth in your business?
- Do you struggle with getting new clients and projects?
- Do you find it hard to say on the point what your company is actually doing?
- Did most of your Marketing actions fail up to now?
- Do you often have to negotiate prices?
- Do you have a lot of competition that makes your life more difficult?
The reason is most certainly that you and your offer are too comparable and only one of many such service providers. With a strong USP, you‘d be able to stand out of your competition and become the go-to-business in your niche!
What is a USP?
USP is the short-form of Unique Selling Proposition or Unique Selling Point.
As the name already says, it‘s something that makes you unique in the eyes of your customers.
Imagine you are looking for a Tax Consultant. There are tons of Tax Consultants out there, so which one to choose? They all offer moreless the same. If you simply are looking for the cheapest one, then the one with the lowest price has it‘s price as USP. Because he‘s offering it for a price nobody else does, he‘s unique and that‘s why you‘d choose him. Though to be honest, price is not really the best USP as it often comes with poor service. So if you‘re not looking for the cheapest one, what are you looking for? How about a Tax Consultant that guarantees, he‘ll save you more money than he costs or otherwise you don‘t have to pay him anything. Does that sound appealing to you? To me it definitely does. So this guy would have his amazing guarantee to stand out of his competition. This makes him unique because nobody else is offering it. This would be his USP and this would (in this example) be the reason why you‘d decide to hire him.
I think you get the idea, right? If you offer something nobody else does (it could also be highly specialized knowledge on a specific topic etc.), then you have something to stand out of the crowd and become the go- to-business for people that are looking for such an offer.
How to create a USP for your business
A really good Unique Selling Proposition has to meet three conditions:
- You can actually deliver what you promise
- It’s something that your target audience needs and wants
- No one of your competitors is offering or at least not communicating the same
So how do you come up with something like that?
- Find out what you‘re really good at. Do you have certain experiences that make you special? Do you use unique methods? Do you have skills that are very rare? What is it that you love the most about your work?
- Do a detailed competitor research and see what they‘re offering, promising and how they‘re communicating. Probably most of them are offering moreless the same. You want to stand out of them. So how can you make a difference? Also keep in mind that your clients can only spend their money once. Which means if they decide to not spend it on you or your direct competitors, what else could they spend it on that might also solve their problem?
- Go back a bit and e.g. read very old emails of your clients when they were first contacting you. Is there something specific they were asking for? Something they were afraid or sceptical about? During your collaboration, what was the one thing that they liked the most about working with you? If you can not find anything, ask them. If they were happy with your work, I‘m pretty sure they‘ll also be happy to answer you a few questions.
That’s the basics. If you want to know more, check out this guide about how to develop your small business marketing strategy.
How can USPMaker help you with that?
Developing something mandatory like an Elevator-Pitch or a USP for yourself is always a big challenge. It becomes an even bigger challenge, if you don‘t have anyone to discuss your ideas and problems with. Most of the time family and friends turn out to be not as useful as you thought because they simply don‘t have any experiences with this kind of stuff.
Outsourcing the development of your USP surely could be an option. Though to be honest, creating a USP is more than just giving you a new shine. It‘s working on your identity! And in my opinion having someone else developing a new identity for you doesn‘t really work. In the end you‘re the one that has to live and execute accordingly, so this really needs to be part of you!
If you like to, then I could be your sparring partner for this task. Means I‘m not doing the complete work for you, but empowering and supporting you on your way to the success that you deserve! Find out more about it here: Marketing Sparring.
