“With 50 other companies selling the same products and services, why should I
do business with you rather than one of your competitors?”
The number of competitors you face as an online merchant grows daily. If you
can’t answer that one question, it’s only a matter of time before you go out of
business.
If you can answer that question and answer it clearly, communicating it to your
prospective customers in everything you do, your road to eCommerce success
is paved with gold!
Your USP or Unique Selling Proposition answers that most critical question. If
you have studied business for very long you’ve probably read or heard about the
importance of having a strong, clear USP. However, it doesn’t take much surfing
online to see that few companies listen. Most know that they need a USP, they
just don’t know how to develop one.
The process of developing your Unique Selling Proposition is fairly simple (note
that I didn’t say easy.) I conduct intensive on-site USP development workshops
for my clients around the world. By doing these workshops I’ve discovered 4
critical steps to developing your USP.
First, study your competition. Search online for potential competitors. Pick the
top 5 to 10 and try to determine their USP. Most will lack a clear USP, for these
look for some of the features or services that they stress.
Now look for the gap in their products or services. What area of the market could
we better service?
Second, examine you own business. Sit down and brainstorm with your staff
possible USP concepts. Don’t judge the ideas, just write them down. To stimulate
thought and ideas ask the following questions:
xx- What do we do the best?
xx- What do we do better than our competition?
xx- What awards have we won?
xx- What do our customers say about us?
xx- What praise do we often get from our customers?
xx- What celebrities or well know organizations endorse us?
xx- What endorsements could we get?
xx- What does our product or service do better than anyone else?
xx- What makes our business model different from our competition?
xx- How could we make it different?
xx- What market category or niche could our industry better service?
It also helps at this stage to interview and survey your current and past
customers. Ask them why they bought from you rather than your competition?
What do they want from a provider of your product or service? What’s important
to them when making a buying decision? What feature or benefits do they value
most or would like to see added to your product or service?
Third, begin to write down and crystallize your ideas. Don’t worry about length at
first, just write down the key points of your USP concept. Focus on the benefits
to your customer of each concept. Develop a list of 5 to 10 possible USPs.
Show this list to your staff, friends, family and current customers. Get their input
and suggestions and use these suggestions and comments to narrow your USP
concept down to a single main differentiating concept.
Once you’ve settled on the most unique and compelling feature of your product
or business, begin to distill it down to one paragraph that clearly communicates
and sums up why your customers should buy from you. Use this paragraph on
your website or in your print marketing materials where you have more room to
explain the unique benefits that you bring to your customers. However, it’s still
too long to for an effective tag line or slogan.
You still need to distill your USP down to one or two focused sentences that
clearly and concisely communicate the benefits of your USP to your customers.
This statement should leave no question in your customers mind about what you
do and what makes you different than your competition.
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