Unique Selling Propositions: The Power of Differentiation - Part II

By Kent Howell
 

In Part I, we started a look at the concept of Unique Selling Propositions with a focus on understanding what they are and why it's so important to know what your USP is and that you utilize it. Now it's time to get into a little of the nuts and bolts of how you create your USP, and where and how you use it to maximize its effectiveness.

There's definitely an art to creating a great USP, but the art primarily revolves around the wording which is very important; however this is the secondary task in the creation process. The first task is the hard part - determining what aspects or components; or features, advantages, and benefits - are actually the most unique and differentiating characteristics or your product or service (from this point on I'll be using the word product to mean either product or service)

The best way to begin crafting your USP is ask yourself a number of questions. The first questions you should ask must be focused around the customer (it always starts with the customer). Start here:

• Who is my target customer?
• What do my customers gain (what to they want to gain) by using my product?
• What value does my product bring to the customer or stated differently - what value does my customer desire from my product?

These are examples of just a few of the customer focused questions you must be able to answer.

Since you're objective is to create a Unique Selling proposition you must make sure that you don't claim something as Unique that one (or more) of your competitors is already touting. So it's vital that you know exactly what your competitors are espousing about their products - this means everything. Therefore you need to learn everything about their products, you need to know what features and aspects of their product that they are emphasizing, you need to know what their advertising messages are saying, what their product brochures and other marketing brochures state, and so on.

Once you have clearly defined who your target customers are and you know everything about your competition then you can begin to look at your company and your products.

So where do you start?

Start with understanding that an effective USP has three elements:

1. It must be truly unique.
2. It must be strong enough and exciting enough to get people (prospects) talking about it.
3. It must not be something that can be copied or imitated easily.

With this as your foundation begin making some lists. For example, make a list of everything your product does (it's also important to know what it doesn't do too); what does it do or provide that competing products do not.

Ask yourself a series of questions about your company and your product using the "six wise men" (who, what, when, where, why, and how). Some examples are:

• Who benefits the most from using our product
• What do we do better than anyone else?
• How will the customer use my product?
• Why should someone buy from us?

These are just a few things you can ask, but remember this most of all - always ask your questions and look at everything from the customer's perspective.

As you start to write your USP think of the single biggest benefit your products offers to your potential customers.

Try to boil it down to a single statement (and absolutely no more than two at most).

1. Make it benefit oriented (let your prospect now what they gain).
2. Be precise (no ambiguities)
3. Use easy to understand language
4. Be concise (get to the point, don't beat around the bush)
5. Make sure it is, in fact, unique. Let the prospect know exactly why he should buy from your company and buy your product and from no-one else.

Lastly, make sure that your USP passes the following test:

• Is it true?
• Is it easy to understand?
• Does it differentiate us from the competition in a positive manner?
• Is it expressed in a way that people can easily express it to themselves and to others?

Now that you've finished the hard part, crafting your USP, you can move on to the far easier part - where and how you use it.

Variations of your USP should be included in ALL of your marketing materials such as your...

• Advertising and sales copy headlines.
• Any and all promotional materials.
• Business cards.
• Brochures.
• Your "elevator pitch", phone, and sales scripts.
• Letterhead letters, & postcards.
  Sales letters.
• Website & Internet marketing.
• Your Email signature.

Incorporate it into everything you do. All your of your correspondence (including invoices) should echo your USP. Dont waste an opportunity. Each time you connect with your customers, deliver your unique selling proposition.

How do you know if it's working? Take a look at your Web site. Will someone who knows nothing about your company understand your USP immediately when first visiting the site? Knowing you have less than five seconds to grab their attention, it better be crystal clear right away. If visitors don't know exactly what you do and what you stand for quickly, they're gone. The same holds true for your print materials.

Your USP is the force that drives your business and success.