We have a course on this topic in The American School, which fleshes out these ideas, but reading this blogpost is even faster than taking the course. In case you don’t know, USP stands for Unique Selling Proposition, or what makes your products or services unique.
The Entrepreneur Magazine article takes a bit different spin on the idea:
- You’re unique because of the customers you serve; you don’t try to be all things to all customers. This is occasionally a hard lesson to learn, because sales are sales, and not all are equally profitable. An example of this sort of targeting would be the over 50 dating website, ourtime.com. Match.com? Not so much.
- You’re unique because of what you sell. Your products or services should be unique to your market, and you should have things like after sale service that distinguish you. Inbound customer service is an important differentiator. 24-hour turnaround, or less, is important. “It’s fixed today or you don’t pay” is one used by a local HVAC firm.
- You’re unique because of what your product does or doesn’t do. Maybe there’s a bad result that you prevent, or a good one that your product or service does. A key question is ‘does your customer perceive that your product is doing something for them that’s unique.
- You’re unique because of your guarantee….done right the first time, fixed today, etc. There’s a local HVAC and pest control company whose owners do entertaining radio ads….could you do something like this? What’s your return policy?
If you’ve got all four of these covered, in the minds of your customers, Bravo! 3 of 4, could be better. 2 of 4, or worse, ya need some work. Take the School course.