How? Your Unique Selling Proposition
A Unique Selling Proposition (USP) is the factor that differentiates your organisation from other providers, and what distinguishes your products and services from their similar offering. When you went through the exercises of the previous topics, you probably already have an idea.
What you need now is how to explain that in one sentence. Preferably as creatively as possible to really distinguish yourself. But before we get started with that, let’s look at this model from Neil Patel.
The most important pieces of this model are the check mark and the question mark. That’s what the Unique Selling Point is for – to clarify to a potential customer that you really are different.
As the name suggests, a Unique Selling Point is unique. So saying things that your competitor says will not help the potential customer to choose you. The statements in the left column might be things other providers claim, too. That means you have to specify what exactly distinguishes you.
By completing this exercise, you’ll be well prepared for one of the following topics: your elevator pitch!
Some Examples of Unique Selling Propositions
‘We’re number two, we try harder.’ – Avis
What is nice about the above USP is that here, Avis turns something negative into something positive. They are not the market leader, so they don’t claim to be – but therefore, they have to work harder.
‘You get fresh, hot pizza delivered to your door in 30 minutes or less or it’s free.’ – Domino’s Pizza
Quite a long USP, but that’s exactly what it says. It could also have said ‘We are the fastest’, but that in itself is not distinctive.
‘Find a lower price and we’ll match it.’ – Bestbuy.com
Not a unique one in itself, but a clear way to say that you are the cheapest in an interesting way.
‘With every pair you purchase, TOMS will give a pair of new shoes to a child in need. One for One’ – TOMS Shoes
When you do good for the world, it certainly doesn’t hurt to say so. It creates sympathy and allows you to charge higher prices. It also distinguishes you from your competitors.