Do you know your USP?

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In my initial meetings with prospective clients, I always ask one question: “why should a customer buy from you?”

I get the standard answers like:

  • We have great service
  • We offer fast delivery
  • We have the best prices and so on

I ask are any of these unique? That would be the U in USP. Every business out there could claim all of these things. Over 90 % of websites out there all say the same things. In the struggle to be unique, a picture of the staff standing in front of delivery vehicles or a family picture with their dog are littered all over the web. It does not tell your uniqueness.

The second question is: “what is that you do that your competition doesn’t do? What makes you and your company stand out?”

This is generally followed by a long pause.

The Third question is: “who is your ideal customer?”

This is usually followed by a fast answer “anybody or everybody who”… blah, blah, blah.

Until you know the precise answer to these questions, who is your ideal customer or how much you should charge for your product or service then smell just like everyone else. Vanilla!
In the connected world, people see hundreds of advertising impressions per day on their computer screens let alone Radio and TV. Remember the “U” in USP. It’s called a Unique Selling Proposition for a reason. It becomes your unique identifier or Market Dominating Position.

Why is this important? It’s the difference between being profitable and just getting by. When you do not have a USP you are left to compete on price. News Flash. The lowest price is a race to the bottom. A race you don’t want to win.

I do not want to insult anyone’s ability for doing the math. If your competitors have the same cost as you and you are selling for less what happens. You make less profit. How do you pay your bills? Exactly, from profit. Why do you give a profit away? Because many business owners don’t know their value. I will take 90 items sold at $ 110.00 then 100 items sold at $ 99.00 all day long. You sold 10 % less and made the same amount of money. But wait. You handled fewer goods. You had less freight and delivery costs and you did this with less inventory. You needed less staff to handle the extra orders. The list goes on.

If you are not already selling your goods or services based on your USP then I ask. Do you want to be more profitable? When do you plan to start?