How a unique selling proposition differentiates you from the competition

Is your company in a market where it seems the only thing your prospects care about is who has the lowest price? Have you clearly differentiated your company from competitors? If you have, is your differentiation compelling enough to attract more prospects and even steal them from your competition?

One key way to position your company in a different way is to develop a unique selling proposition (USP). A USP is a statement of how your company is unique giving a potential buyer a logical reason to do business with you.

A simple way to develop a USP is to employ a formula called “Do you know how… What we do”.
Pick a pain, problem or issue your market faces and then describe the unique way your company addresses that problem.
One example is a USP Dominoes Pizza used several years ago. “Do you know how when you order a pizza delivery you sometimes have to wait a long time? Do you know how the pizza often arrives cold?” Dominoes Pizza guarantees delivery of hot tasty pizza within thirty minutes or it is free.
Once you have developed a USP, it should be utilized throughout your company including, for example, in all of your advertisements, on company stationery and on delivery trucks. In addition, company employees should be informed about the USP and encouraged to communicate it to customers when interacting with them.

What if you can’t find an appropriate USP for your company? Employ preemptive marketing. With preemptive marketing, you are the first in your market to make a claim even though other competitors could have made the same claim. One example is Schlitz Brewing Company. A well known advertising expert, Claude Hopkins, met with the company and was impressed that the water from the beer was taken from deep Artesian wells and the bottles were sterilized two times. The owner of the business informed Hopkins that other competitors used the same process. Hopkins responded by asking if those companies told the market about it. The answer was no. At the advice of Hopkins, Schlitz heavily advertised its process and moved from position five in the beer market to the first position.

Develop a unique selling proposition (USP). A USP is a statement of how your company is unique giving a potential buyer a logical reason to do business with you.