What's So Special About You? (Defining Your USP)

Your prospect is in the market for a widget, just like the one you sell. She surfs over to Google (or picks up her Yellow Pages) and looks up “widgets.”

She is immediately greeted by 15 different widget companies, including yours. How does she go about making her selection? And what can you do to make her more likely to select you?

This is where your Unique Selling Proposition (USP) comes in. Your USP tells Ms. Prospect what is different about you, and why she should choose your product or service over that of your competitor.

So, how do you determine yours?

Know Thy Customer

The first thing you need to know is who you’re selling to. Take a look at your target customer. What are her core beliefs and desires? What keeps her awake at night?

You need to know more than just her demographics. You need to have a fleshed-out image of who she is and what her problems and frustrations are. What are her sore spots? Is there anything that is really bothering her?

You must know her intimately if you’re going to try to sell to her. Otherwise you’ll just be guessing at what buttons to push. You need a detailed map of her core buying emotions so that you can navigate the path from her heart to her wallet.

Know Thyself

First, you need to sit down and make a list of all the benefits of doing business with you, and those of your particular product or service. Be sure they’re really benefits, and not just features.

Pay special attention to how those features relate to what you’ve learned about your target customer(s).

Put yourself in your customer’s shoes: What does your widget do for her? How does it make her feel? What is the emotional payoff for her? Think about her problems and frustrations that you identified. How does your product or service solve them?

How will your prospect feel about doing business with you? Does your customer service excel in any way? Do you offer a special or unique service as a bonus for doing business with you (such as training to use your product, consulting, etc.)?

Look at every aspect of your business through your prospect’s eyes and determine what about you will mean the most to her.

Know Thy Competitors

Next, you need to have a look at the competition. Is there any way your widget is different from theirs? What benefits are they stressing? What are they not talking about?

See if you can determine who their target customer is. Perhaps it’s just a little different than yours, even if the product or service you offer is similar. You could be an accountant who specializes in retirement planning, while your competitor targets small start-up businesses.

How is your product or service more valuable to your prospect? What needs of hers will you meet that your competition won’t? Do you have better or additional features? What will those features mean to her?

If there really is something unique about your product or service, by all means focus on it. But it may be that your competition offers something very similar to you. That doesn’t mean that you can’t stand out. It just means that you have to find something to focus on that isn’t already being talked about.

Go back over your list and cross out the benefits your competition is stressing. From what’s left, pick out five or six of your strongest entries.

Again, relate them to your prospect. What benefit is most likely to meet her needs and resonate with her core buying emotions?

Boil that benefit down into the shortest sentence possible. Make it tight. Use action verbs and vivid word pictures. Make it catchy. If you can, try to encapsulate both the problem and the solution.

Congratulations! You now have a USP that can (and should) be used in every marketing communication you issue. And your prospect has a reason to choose you over the competition.

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