What is a USP (Unique Selling Proposition)?

Your USP is the unique thing that you can offer that your competitors can’t. It’s your “competitive edge.” It’s the reason that customers buy from you and you alone, or at least above most others.

If you don’t have a USP, you blend within the market and may struggle for survival – that way results in hard work and less reward. It costs much more in advertising and SEO to be found in the digital universe without a clear USP.

USPs have helped many companies succeed. However, USPs are often extremely difficult to find. And as soon as one company establishes a successful USP in a market, competitors rush to copy it.

When you identify your USP, make sure it’s something that really matters to potential customers. There’s no point in being the best in the industry for something they don’t care about.

My 4-Step Method to Developing your USP

The 4 Step Method to develop a USP is:

1. Understand the Characteristics that Customers Value

First, brainstorm what customers value about your product or services and those of your competitors. Move beyond the basics common to all suppliers in the industry, and look at the criteria customers use to decide which product or service to buy.

Talk to salespeople, customer service teams, and, most importantly, talk to customers themselves.

2. Rank Yourself and Your Competitors by These Criteria

Now identify your top competitors. Being as objective as you can, score yourself and each of your competitors out of 10 for each characteristic

3. Identify Where You Rank Well

Now plot these points on a graph. This helps you spot different competitors’ strengths and weaknesses. And from this, develop a simple, easily communicated statement of your USP.

4. Preserve Your USP (and Use It!)

The final step is to make sure you can defend your USP. You can be sure that as soon as you start promote a USP, your competitors will do what they can to neutralise it: If you’ve got the best website, they’ll bring in a better web designer. If you’ve got a great new feature in your product, you’ll see it in theirs next year.

If you’ve established a USP, it makes sense to invest to defend it; that way, competitors will struggle to keep up. By the time they’ve improved, you’ve already moved to the next stage.

In the next post, I’ll go through the importance of defining your ideal client, and thereby, your target audience.