Get Your USP Right

June 2010
Robyn Gray 

It’s a fact proven many times over that a compelling and unique sales proposition made to your customers will win you more customers.  I’ve seen it so many times.

But how do you arrive at that offer?  One of the reasons I’m so pleased to be on the Strategy and Action team is that their method of USP Derivation makes perfect sense.

And I saw it first hand with a client here in Melbourne...

But let’s start with the basics…

What is a Unique Selling Proposition?

A USP is not a slogan, a mission statement, or a catch- cry. Sure, these al have their place within a business but they are not a USP.

If you break the term into its parts, you get a good idea of what a USP is really all about.

A USP is a proposition you make to your market.

Not only that, it's one directed at generating a response, an action, a sale. It's a selling proposition.

And not only that, it's a selling proposition that no other competitor makes. It's unique.

So how do you Capture or Create a Unique Offer?

The secret is in good and practical research.  In fact, three pieces of research... on your market, on your competitors and on your own strengths and weaknesses.

The more you know about what your customers and prospects think, the better.  Ask as many questions as you can think but be sure to include these three:

• What do they like about you and your competitors?
• What, if anything, do they dislike about you and our competitors?
• What would they like from a company like yours that they have never had before?

Then you need to look at your competitors.  How do they package and sell their total product?  What are their strengths and weaknesses?  If they are already advertising a unique offer, what is it?  Get to know them as well as you can.

Finally, you need to look internally, and evaluate your company’s strengths and weaknesses and those of your product or service. 

When you’ve got all these, you’ve got the raw material for your USP.  You have a gap... an answer to a really simple and powerful question... “What does your market want, which your competitors are failing to adequately claim, and which you could deliver?”

Once it’s word-smithed and tested, that answer is as close to a great USP as you’re likely to get.

What do you do with your new USP?

Your goal should be to communicate it to as many customers and prospects as you can.  Use it in these ways:

• Your advertising
• Your sales spiel
• Your internal training
• Your building signage
• Your quotes and invoices

Every business has the ability to develop a unique offer.  It can be the difference between a stagnating growth rate and outstanding sales performance.

Let’s see it in action...

A client here in Melbourne is a developer of great software for running your human resources better.  Now the advantages it offers are solid, but the client hadn’t clearly put these to paper.

They’d also phrased them a little more to the ‘preventative’ and this is always a harder sell.  People want to avoid a pain they have now, or get something they want now.  Avoiding a maybe or getting a might be isn’t nearly as exciting.

But their software provides all the ‘now’ a business would want.  It just hadn’t been made clear.

So going through a USP Derivation, we arrived at what should achieve far better cut-through.

Let me give you the old slogan, first, then the new USP... you’ll see the difference.

[old]      Minimise risk and maximise growth through compliant human resource systems

[new]    Cut your HR Costs, Comply with Legislation, And Keep Your Great Staff Longer

As we begin to reflect their new USP in their marketing materials and actions, we’ll help them carve out a stronger place in the market.