How to find your unique selling proposition

A ‘unique selling proposition’ (USP) is something that many companies have, but it would be true that most do not know they have one. When you follow the simple steps in this article, you will be able to identify your PVU and will likely find that you have more than one. Without a clear USP, your ability to focus on your market, save money on advertising and promotion, 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 PVU is like a ship without a rudder

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

Example: bakery and cafe

Let’s say you decide to open a bakery and coffee shop. There is close competition, so do some research and find out the following:

What the competition does

1. They open at 7 a.m. M. And they close around 4:30 p.m. M.
2. They offer a variety of coffees and teas.
3. They offer freshly prepared sandwiches and rolls.
4. They offer a special order facility for birthday cakes.

What they don’t do

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

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

Here’s what it does (you can still do the things your competition does too if you choose …

1. Open at 6 a.m. M. For traffic that passes early in the morning and closes at 6 p.m. M. To serve clients returning home from work.
2. Offer 3 copies of each of today’s newspapers
3. Email your order service
4. Office catering offer
5. Donate leftover stock to local charities / food banks

The list can continue 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’ve defined what your PVU is, you need to start creating some words and maybe images around each PVU that you define.

Basic rules for a PSU:

• It must be something that you know to be true and believe in it.
• It should create some form of emotion in the reader.
• You must instantly communicate what the IP is about.
• It must be specific
• It must be concise
• It should have a 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 advantage of the leaders and have something to throw in response to one last move from the competition.