A ‘Unique Selling Proposition’ (USP) is something that many companies have, but it would be true to say that most do not know they have one. When you follow the simple steps in this article, you’ll be able to identify your USP, and you’ll probably find that you have more than one. Without a clear USP, your ability to focus on your market, conserve advertising and promotion dollars, and most importantly, write your business plan, is almost non-existent.

You may have heard of something called your ‘Differential’, as well as other things, your USP describes the difference between your business and your competition.

A Business Plan without a USP is like a ship without a rudder

It is extremely important that you include your USP in your Business or Marketing Plan, you can be sure that if you are looking for financing or a bank loan, cash providers will want to know what differentiates you from your customers. competition and it had better be good.

Example: Bakery and Cafeteria

Suppose you decide to open a bakery and coffee shop. There is some nearby competition out there, so you do some research and discover the following:

what does the competition do

1. They open at 7 am and close around 4.30 pm
2. They offer a variety of coffees and teas.
3. They offer freshly prepared sandwiches and rolls.
4. They offer a special order service for birthday cakes.

what they don’t do

1. They do not offer today’s newspapers.
2. They do not offer an email ordering service
3. They do not offer office catering for special presentations etc.
4. They don’t donate leftover stock to a food bank or the like.

Your opportunity is to do what they don’t and in the process establish your ‘Unique Selling Propositions’

This is what you do (You can still do the things your competition does if you choose…

1. It opens at 6 am for early morning passing traffic and closes at 6 pm to serve customers returning home from work.
2. Offer 3 copies of each of today’s newspapers.
3. Offer an email to your service request
4. Office catering offer
5. Donate leftover stock to local charities/food banks

The list can go on from here, but the advice would be not to do it all at once. You will find a competitor matrix very helpful in this process.

Once you have defined what your USP is, you need to start creating some words and maybe images around each USP that you define.

Basic rules for a USP:

• It must be something you know to be true and believe in.
• It must create some kind of emotion in the reader.
• It must instantly communicate what the USP is about.
• must be specific
• must be concise
• It should have real meaning.
• An Important Note A ‘Unique Selling Proposition’ does not mean a ‘Permanent Unique Selling Proposition!’ Always have something up your sleeve to offer your customers and that way you will have the leadership advantage and have something to launch in response to the latest move from competitors.